• About NCSC

The Children’s Science Congress, a flagship programme of NCSTC, DST aims at spreading the concept of the method of science among the children with their project activities adopting the process of learning through doing. The mandate of participation is that the children will carry out on a particular topic in relation to a focal theme and several sub-themes decided for a period of two consecutive years. The study is to be carried out in the neighbourhood of the children where they live or study. It is a group activity on a local specific problem, using simple method of science.

From 2018, two children of same age group will form a team. The study is carried out under the supervision of a guide. It is noteworthy that CSC programme is not only for the school going children but also open for children outside the formal boundary of schools, in the age group of 10 to 17 years. The children of 10 to 14 years are considered as junior group and 14+ to 17 years as senior group as on the 31st December of the calendar year of participation.

Further, it is not mandatory that the guide must be a school teacher; rather any person with a fair knowledge about method of science and have the aptitude of dealing with children can guide the CSC project, but not any relative or parents of the Child Scientist.

Such practice of a project based activity, as a thumb rule, encourages the children to explore, think, wonder and experiment. By doing so, the children also imbibes the following temperament/quality/skills of the children:

• Observation
• Asking measurements
• Making comparison and contrasts
• Classification
• Estimation
• Prediction
• Interpretation
• Critical and creative thinking
• Drawing conclusion
• Cooperative skill
• Documentation
• Communication skill

It is, therefore, expected that any group of children can undertake a project work with a perspective of continuous effort of questioning and experimentation as shown in Figure-1. Here, observation incorporates anything the children observe in their daily life and/or their local contexts, in relation to the theme defined for that year.

The observation should be followed by relevant questions such as “What? Where? When? Why? How? Who?” In quest of finding out the answer to the question(s) it is required to review relevant literature concerning the issues in chosen study. Review of useful literature helps in framing the steps towards conducting the study. In the process, one may also discuss with subject experts to get information and advice. Initiatives for such activities must be encouraged by the guide. These steps will help to frame a set of assumptions/ hypotheses.

Hypothesis is an assumption of some cause and its impact based on observation, trends, information collected from different literature and emerged from discussion with experts. After these phases, and with the understanding of the issue, the team decide upon a set of objectives of the study. Based on those objectives and with help from the guide and/or the experts, they should design a methodology leading to a work plan which are to be decided on the basis of nature of the project and the time available to carry out the project. Depending on the objectives and methodology, the study can either be purely experimental or a scientifically designed/field survey based or a combination of both. In case of a survey based project, one should be extremely careful not to get carried away by simple surveys which are questionnaire based, where the participation of the community is negligible.

Survey based Projects:

A properly framed survey-based project must follow the following mandatory steps:

• Identification of respondent
• Location mapping
• Unit of observation
• Sampling technique
• Sample coverage /size (which should be representative of the population under consideration)
• Design of interview schedule /questionnaire
• Analysis and interpretation of gathered information
• Drawing inference/conclusion

Surveys should, therefore be elaborate, comprehensive and should be aided with additional techniques like participatory mapping / appraisal techniques, focus group discussions, etc. Care should be taken that surveys do not get reduced to mere filling-up of pre-designed questionnaires which are done mechanically without any cross-checking and/or active participation of the respondents. Such decisions may vary with the nature of study. So, carrying out a scientifically designed survey is a process where proper investment of time and effort is required to design the process and to make it a participatory one.

Experiment based Projects

In case of experiment based projects the following important steps are important:

• Choosing objectives of study
• Design of the experiment
• Defining different parameters
• Identification of proper instruments
• Framing of procedures/ steps and control
• Repetitive observation of the experiments
• Data recording, classification, tabulation and processing
• Analysis and interpretation
• Drawing inference/conclusion

In relation to issues of the study, experiment may be either laboratory or field based. Scientifically designed and executed surveys also can be considered at par experimental based projects; as both of these generate scientific data which could be scientifically processed to arrive at conclusions/ inference.

As stated earlier an ideal CSC project could have a combination of survey and experimental based process. Such consideration will strengthen the project methodology, and also will strengthen the skills of the children.

It is expected that in course of time, the children’s project will bring in lots of new information about problems and prospects of their locality along with innovative ideas to address these issues. Moreover, in the course of project work, the children may develop innovative approaches of study along with development of different instruments for their experiments. Such tools/ instruments may be developed with locally available, affordable materials and experiment-based trials as far as possible. Moreover outcome of different studies should be communicated to the local populace. This will in turn, help in generating scientific temperament among the community as well. The added benefit is that, the results of the study are owned by the community as they vary by local adaptation.

In a nutshell, the CSC projects are simple, innovative, practical, concerned with local issues related with day-to-day life and are carried out with very nominal cost, where the focus is more on logical interpretation and analysis issues and finding out pragmatic solutions of generic nature to the possible extent.