Participants at the Mineral Mania workshop held at British Council on Saturday

Several volcanoes erupted in the British Council conference room between 4 and 6pm on June 28. Some vinegar and liquid detergent, a teaspoonful baking soda and some red food colour was all that an eager group of kids needed to recreate one of nature’s devastating phenomena.

The workshop, Mineral Mania, was aimed at introducing young students to rocks and minerals through hands-on experiments and fun. There were models to explain the composition of the earth, with charts and photographs of all kinds of minerals. The three workshop facilitators from Madscience, a Canada-based organisation with a branch in the city, enthusiastically swapped information back and forth.

When the 10 to 13-year-olds claimed they found the instructions “crystal clear”, the facilitators asked them to name a crystal. The children knew that diamond was really carbon and the earth’s mantel was “a soup of various minerals”. It was only when someone said that he knew the Indian railway tracks are made of silver that there was some hearty laughter.

Chomping on snacks after the session, Subharti Dutta of Class VII said he was dying to try out some of the experiments at home while Dipro Roy, a Class V student of Bidhanagar Municipality School confided that though he loved plants better than rocks, the workshop had been interesting.

“Generally our workshops are aimed at encouraging reading and writing habits in children. But lately we have felt that children are not comfortable with science, thinking it dull and incomprehensible. So we decided to organise these workshops and back it with some reading material,” said Aparna Bhattacharya, manager of young audiences, British Council.

“The library tries to organise one workshop a week. We had sessions on dinosaurs, nature and pollution, blue and black oceans, air and pressure. Participants are either six to nine years or 10 to 13 years of age. Coming up on July 19 is a workshop on light and colour for six to nine year olds.”

For the more literary-minded, there are workshops on limerick writing, building characters for stories and public speaking in August, October and November. A craft workshop has also been scheduled for September. The annual British Council reading challenge will return for the fourth time this October.

Sebanti Sarkar

Young authors’ day out

Ashoke Viswanathan and young writers at the launch of For Kids By Kids. Picture by Anindya Shankar Ray

It was a dream come true for these writers. An anthology of short stories titled For Kids By Kids was launched at Crossword bookstore on June 27. Handpicked from an array of over 3000 fiction and non-fictional short stories contributed by students from classes VI to IX, the final 18 reflect on diverse subjects with distinctive styles.

Part of the tenth Scholastic Writing Awards, this national competition aims at showcasing the creative side of kids and promoting reading habits among them. The essays and narratives range from current environmental threats to social issues like poverty and illiteracy. Over 30 students along with their parents and teachers were present at the launch.

Publisher Scholastic India’s regional manager, Indrajit Bhattacharya, said: “We have had a very positive response this year, which proves that children are still interested in reading and creative writing.”

The event started with a speech by film director Ashoke Viswanathan. He weaved numerous anecdotes into his speech, giving students a brief outline on the usage of puns and double-meanings in writing.

A reading session of the prize-winning entries by the young authors was next on the agenda. Shalmi Barman, a Class IX student of La Martiniere for Girls was awarded first prize for her entry The Piper in the senior fiction category. Sikhar Patranobis from Vivekananda Mission School bagged the runners-up award for his biographical entry on Swami Vivekananda. Janhabi Mukherjee, a Class VI student of Calcutta Girls’ High School was adjudged the best author in the junior non-fiction category for Deepa — a piece depicting the economic difficulties and social threats suffered by a poverty-stricken family and about the differences in lifestyle between the fortunate and the socially-handicapped.

All participants were given certificates, while the top three in each category received additional cash prizes.

Tanmoy Das Lala

CHIT CHAT

Taking over

Calcutta Girls’ High School has welcomed its new principal Basanti Biswas after the retirement of Beulah Raju, who had served for several years. The former headmistress of Delhi Public School, New Town has more than 16 years’ experience as a teacher and administrator, having spent over a decade with Mahadevi Birla Girls’ Higher Secondary School.