One parent liked the recycling model so much that she said she wanted to buy it. The project was a lamp made out of plastic bottles, glitter, paper and lights. “We’ve been told not to sell anything,” the student had said, much to the potential customer’s amusement.
The popular recycling model was part of the River Oaks Academy science fair on Friday at its PECHS campus. The projects - from mining and forest conservation to water crystallisation - might have been made by students as young as fourth graders but this was no child’s play.
The children recycled material such as CDs, cotton, plastic and paper bags to create a concert stage, mehndi thaal, lamp, frame, magazine rack, crushed paper mask and other things to keep on your mantle or hang on your wall.
Older students had made more advanced, technical models.
Many students said that the most difficult part was finding the right materials for their models. Class IX commerce students, who were making agricultural models, said they had a really hard time finding plastic trees and toy animals for their farm project. “We went all over the city and finally found the right things from this one toyshop in Saddar,” said Mustafa Gulzar.
Seventh graders Hijab and Wardah borrowed their brother’s toy trucks and cars for their science model, which showed how our fossil fuel resources are being exhausted due to growing needs and the ever-increasing world population.
The secondary students section was reserved for grades IX and X. One project, a fire equaliser, caught much attention. The dancing flames appeared to move to the beat of music and the creators, Hassan, Umer and Wadud, explained that the project had been conceived to demonstrate the relationship between sound waves and sound pressure on a standing wave flame tube.
Two other students, Daniyal and Zain, had succeeded, after several attempts, in making the Archimedes screw, while Abdul Moiz and Ilhan had constructed a hovercraft.
Moiz said when they had completed the aircushion vehicle, they tried to lift Daniyal, who weighs 40 kgs, on it but that proved too ambitious an attempt for their little creation.
Faria Ansari, who teaches science to classes V to VIII, said that children today are much sharper and intelligent. “They came up with ideas that people from our generation would probably never have dreamed of.”
She talked about an electricity project, in which one of the students had used a button to make a ship float on water. Ansari said even she could not have thought of such a good project, let alone gone ahead and executed it perfectly.
However, the students had asked their families to help and parents were patted on the back for their assistance.
Mr and Mrs Adnan Paracha said that they were happy that their son Maaz had created something and that they had helped him with his project.
ROA Principal Aasim Karim said students are encouraged to be themselves and to push their skills to produce results that often exceed their own expectations.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 2nd, 2011.
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