2022-12-16 by Tanvi Dash

IndiaAsksWhy Team Visits Delhi Public School, Secunderabad

Sparking Curiosity To Know More!

Students of class VIII, Delhi Public School, Secunderabad attended an engrossing session with podcasters who run a show that explores curious questions that often go unanswered.

"IndiaAsksWhy" is IndiaBioscience-funded science podcast series run by Shweata N. Hegde, science podcaster, Regional Institute of Education, Mysore. Ruchi Manglunia, a graduate researcher, at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and Dr Megha Kumar, a developmental biologist who runs an independent research lab at CSIR-CCMB.

The session commenced with a survey on the number of curious people in the room and a discussion as to why is it important to ask questions. A sense of "burning curiosity" enables students to understand the why, what, and how of things and builds persistence to find answers to questions.

Dr Megha discussed the experiments being carried out in the lab and shared how her inspiration stemmed from her biology teacher in school. She encouraged students to be passionate and persistent about their dreams. She answered the questions posed by students and invited them to share more questions.

Curious questions stem from the power of observation. The critical observation is the ability to notice delicate or difficult-to-analyse details not just collect data. In order to drive home this point, students were engaged in an activity to observe pictures on the screen and come up with their curious questions. This activity encouraged students to observe critically, think out of the box and frame questions.

Students whose questions are selected will also participate in the making of the science podcast and interview a scientist.

Overall, the session was interactive and fun-filled and sparked the curiosity of DPSites.