Organising children's science congress: Challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Since 1990s, a major platform, 'Children's Science Congress' (CSC) has been provided annually for young researchers under 18 years of age. They work in teams on open-ended projects around a preannounced theme and present their findings at school and district events. Theme development is a consultative process among subject experts, state academic coordinators and the members of National Council of Science and Technology Communication Network. Mentors are sensitised to the philosophy of the open-ended research projects at state and regional workshops. They are familiarised with the theme of the congress and exposed to the range of projects in the various subthemes. Competitions are organised during October and November at the state level to shortlist entries to the National Children's Science Congress (NCSC) and Rashtriya Bal Vigyan Sammelan (RBVS, meaning national children's science conference) organised concurrently with the annual session of the Indian Science Congress since 1999. Presentation in regional languages or English is another characteristic that encourages participation from state-run schools. Outstanding projects are selected both in the junior (age under 14 years) and senior (age 14 to under 18 years) categories. On the flipside, while projects with potential have been picked for internship a good number of ideas have been abandoned after the national event. There has been little effort to develop long-term association with delegates of the earlier congresses despite the advancements in information technologies.