The Make Science Programme

For the last eight years, I have been involved in a unique programme on Science Education front. This is called the faites de la science (in French) which the French translate as "Make Science Programme", but which I think is more appropriate to be translated as "Let's do/celebrate science".

The Programme is unique in many means. First of all, it is limited to students of Government schools of Pondicherry district alone. Affluent private school children can not participate and thus can not out-smart the poor, rural children who study in the government schools. Secondly, it is about exploring science around the school and have lot of scope for the school children. Thirdly, it is run by the University of Paris, South 11, Orsay, France where the project are evaluated and certified by an Expert Jury of the University and where certificates are issued to them, which itself is a very prestigious educational institution with a number of Nobel laureates and Field Medalists to claim.  Fourth, every project done by the Indian student are video-documented in Puducherry and sent to France with sub-titles in English (for Tamil voice), and later the Jury members interact with the School kids through a live video conferencing before they announce the prizes.

We, from Pondicherry Science Forum started this programme eight years ago with help from Dr.Santhroubane who is a Pondicherrian settled in France and along with his friend Prof.Pierre Fontes who himself is an accomplished Science Communicator and who has the habit of conducting science experiments in street corners and shopping malls etc. A number of people have been involved in this programme.

This year's video editing was completed just now and the films have been despatched to France. Eight years - indeed a long time ... and a large number of children have been benefited already, a large number of school teachers have been trained in project research methodology... and for Pondicherry Science Forum, it has been a great programme. But the entire exercise of videography, editing, sub-titling, DVD authoring is becoming a huge task for me...and I wonder how long I can continue to do this ....Another year? Let us hope ...

Organic Vegetable Cultivation at Uchimedu village, Bahour, Puducherry.

Organic vegetables grown by villagers in Uchimedu Village of Bahour, Puducherry, INDIA. Part of a DST, Govt. of India project to have sustainable nutritional gardens, these villagers are happy with their produce..

Green post...!

The Green Post

Wish
if
all
posts
were
like
this !!

Road side beauty...!

On the ECR Road near Reddichavady..

bright and yellow,
in the heat and the sun,
in the dust and smoke,
of the speeding vehicles,
tendered by nature
not noted by many
they stand tall
caught the eyes
of me
...
....
and my

....
....
camera..

The Solitary reaper...@Gingee Fort

At Gingee, a lone monkey...

A betel vine and some memories...

We have a small betel vine in our house, which my wife got from her school ignored by the school watchman, it was going to die off. She brought it and planted in our house and now it is fresh and with lot of beautiful tender leaves.

Some scientific facts: Betel leaf consist of moisture 85.4 percent, protein 3.1 percent, fat 0.8 percent, minerals 2.3 percent, fiber 2.3 percent and carbohydrates 6.1 percent per 100 grams. Its minerals and vitamin contents are calcium, carotene, riboflavin, niacin, thiamine and vitamin C. Recent studies have shown that betel leaves contain tannins, sugar and diastases and an essential oil. The essential oil is a light yellow liquid of aromatic odor and sharp burning in taste. It contains a phenol called chavicol which has powerful antiseptic properties. The alkaloid arakene in it has properties resembling cocaine in some respects.


Betel leaves are also a household remedy for cough and cold for small children. The juice of betel leaves can be given to infants if they have cough and used to be prescribed by even doctors from JIPMER. Chewing betel leaves with lime used to be a good cosmetic practice by women in olden days, though the practice is now limited to marriage functions etc. Chewing betel leaves also is supposed to be good for the teeth provided you dont add tobaco leaves along with betel leaves.

I still remember my grandmother's sister who used to regularly chew betel leaves with her specially prepared areca nut preparation. As children, we used to compare our red tongues as to whose tongue was more red.

Betel leaves also have a spiritual place in Indian tradition and we offer the same to elders as a mark of respect. May be it was known to our ancestors that this herb had such wonderful medicinal values, it was made part of the traditions ! But sadly, the herb is becoming less cultivated these days, as very few people use it now a days.