Friday 8 June 2012

Science Fair or Fear

“Can you drop me back to my school" I asked my dad interrupting the siesta he was enjoying . It was on the first day of the Science Fair in our school. I had just returned home and had my lunch . The weather was very hot as usual in summer in Doha .My dad asked some questions and finally agreed. Now a days it is my younger brother who drives. But he was in fact fast asleep and none will dare to awake him. At around 3 P.M. I was in the Exhibition Hall.

In every school or institution it may happen once in an year. The students just cant wait until it arrives. Some start preparing even an year before .When they however reach the bridge, it may be too hard to cross.

winde electricity(house)

A teacher by profession , my only sister always gifts me with educational toys. Last time it was solar building kit ,so much to build, so much to work and so much to tryout The kit allowed me to build 6 different items. The solar car was obviously the best one, but would not work properly. So I made a solar dog, but it seemed to me that it was not enough. After all it was very small. And so the title of the project came to my mind. Instead of the title solar energy, I decided to make it ‘natural energy’ and thus included wind electricity into it.
solar robot dog

When you hear the title solar dog or solar robot , big things may come to your mind. But my solar dog does not bark or walk o run . All it does is turn it’s tail rapidly as long as the light stays in contact with the solar cell. But the tail acts as a propeller and at the same time causes vibrations which in turn makes the dog move in circular motion.
how it works

On the first day when the teachers in charge came in for checking whether what each student had brought was worthy of participation or not, the atmosphere was tense because the participants did not know what were the topics to be rejected rather than selected . Most of the items were unfortunately rejected and mine was luckily one of the selected topics. The morning was for the mounting and with most of my class mates gone; things started getting a little boring. When the morning session of the fair was over and we were to go home.



When I returned home after the morning session on the second day, I told my dad that I had to return to the school. He disagreed saying that since it was Thursday I had to attend evening religious lessons . Then I asked what I would say to my partner who would be waiting for me in the school and he agreed. This time it was my elder brother who took me to the school.

Even though the solar dog seemed to be an interesting topic, we had problems awaiting us. For starters, the solar dog despite defined as a means of ‘conservation of electricity’, needed a table lamp to act as an artificial sun which meant that I needed to mount my exhibit where there is an electric plug that was available only inside classrooms. So we mounted our exhibit inside a classroom while most of the others were in the corridor. It was now open to public but here came the big problem, we were pinned inside the class. And no one would bother come inside to view the exhibits. Everyone preferred just going on straight watching the exhibits next to them. The bright side was that we had a comfortable and pleasant time.

me and my friends
It was night time and the exhibition was finally over. There was a valedictory function but I only stayed for the main part, the rest was all dances and dramas. We were given transport back home but not the same bus. Certain buses take you to particular areas along with teachers. Walking to the bus might sound simple but it is not that simple in my school. The school is very large with 5 different sections. I needed to first find my bus. I asked the one in charge and got my bus number but not its location. On the way I found a friend who was younger but had the same interest I had-experimenting on electronics. We found the bus outside the campus but the driver told us that we could only board the buses after the function was over. Then it was off to the other end of the school. By the time we reached there the final folk dance was over. And as they were delivering the concluding speech we returned and the function was over before we got there. But the bus door was locked and the driver had not come, leaving us in the scorching heat. Some teachers had come and they were waiting for the door to open too. I got tired of waiting so I went to driver’s door and it was not locked so I climbed up the bus to the door that was located a little far from vehicle’s base. I got into the driver’s seat and pulled a lever which then opened the door. We got in and once everyone arrived the driver came and we were off to our homes. We had some fun with our exhibits. Even though we didn’t win any prizes, we were very close to it, it turned out that we were ranked as the 4th.




By the youngest son














2 comments:

  1. i remember my school day exhibition , when once i was in chemistry and ones in physics stall. i was proving the theor that if you blow between to objects it would attract rather than repel. my greatest fear was that whether it would work or not everytime i blow.i wanted to build a model where we show , how we would live if global warming melts the whole ice , like paddy fields on boats, house boats and solar electricity. but didn't have the support . its good to see you are well supported by everyone. the best part of such events are the intimacy and cooperation that develops amoung your peers. you get to know each other and help each other.

    simple and innocent words that moved my heart and took it to the past

    thank you

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  2. Mushoo, now you reached at fourth position, go forth, you can grow beyond the first. Insha Allah

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