The Inspire Internship Science Camp in association is an initiative by the Department of Science of Technology under Ministry of Science and Technology, India to encourage students for endeavors and jobs in the field of science, technology and research. From December 13th - December 17th, students from various schools like Army Public School, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Patha Bhavan and many other schools were present at iLEAD campus to participate in the five day long Inspire Science Internship Camp under the supervision of Director General of iLEAD, Dr UK Neogi. Renowned and famous professionals in the field of science like Dr. Debiprosad Duari, Dr. Paromita Roy, Professor Samar Kumar Bagchi and many others shared their knowledge and interacted with the students in sessions held at iLEAD auditorium. The practical sessions were held at the new iLEAD campus for hands on experiences and enrichment of students in their respective fields of interest.
Day 1, December 13th
The first day saw more than 130 students gathering at the iLEAD campus. The event started with encouraging students through recorded speeches of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. Introductory speeches to ignite young minds by iLEAD Chairman, Mr. Pradip Chopra, Dr. Debiprosad Duari and Prof. Tarasankar Pal also garnered tremendous enthusiasm by students.
Following this, Dr Duari presented his lecture on 'Astronomy and Astrophysics, Concepts and Challenges' and discussed every possible topic in the field which the students listened with great interest. Prof. Tarasankar Pal, spoke on 'Chemistry of Metals and Metal Oxides'. According to some students never before were sessions on chemistry so interesting. During the second half, the students were taken to the new campus, where they participated in various laboratory activities.
Day 2, December 14th
Professor Samar Kumar Bagchi demonstrated various experiments with the help of students and provided simplified examples of some laws and formulas. He even demonstrated Newton's laws using suitable experiments. The interactive session continued with Dr. Sibaji Raha's lecture on climate change, its impacts and how to deal with them and post lunch, the students got to know much more about the sessions via demonstrations at the laboratories.
Day 3, December 15th
The day started with a new lecture on 'Water Pollution and its Remedy' - one of the most critical environmental topics of the decade by Dr. Anjali Pal. The threat of water crisis and pollution seemed too real and frightening when Dr. Pal said that within another fifty years, all countries would be at war amongst each other for water. She ended her lecture with a talk on 'Green Chemistry' which is used to synthesize chemicals of less hazardous nature.
Dr. Papiya Nandy spoke on 'The Allure of Science' or 'the call of science'. This talk was filled with anecdotes and trivia from the lives of Niels Bohr, J.C. Bose, Rutherford, Einstein and many others. The topics which she elaborately explained were: Beauty of Science, Why Science should be studied, Importance of Scientific Studies, Government policies for further Scientific Studies, Government's role in helping scientists and The Importance of Science Camps. She also spoke on Science and Ethics, where she discussed ethics in the field of science and medicine.
Day 4, December 16th
Dr. Paromita Roy, spoke about the Indian education system, adolescence, why creativity is important to study science and about the various mindsets. Following this Dr. Probal Chaudhuri conducted an interesting session on the shape of the earth and the problem of inconsistent equations. He spoke about various experiments relating to the equations he explained. After the lunch break, the students were taken to the new campus for practical sessions.
Day 5, December 17th
Dr. Arindam Rana spoke to the students about science as a study of nature and demonstrated experiments with active participation from the students. After this, iLEAD Chairman Mr Pradip Chopra discussed environmental issues that we face today, and showed few minutes of the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" which explained the environmental problems that the world is facing.
After the lunch break, certificates of participation at the Inspire Science Camp were distributed and students shared their experiences and conveyed how they were inspired by the science camp.
The event concluded with screening of iLEAD's "1971 India's Finest Hour" which is a part of the 45th Vijay Diwas celebrations.
