Bhubaneswar, Aug. 5: No more lazing around on Sundays while your little Einsteins strive to take the scientific world by storm.

The Regional Science Centre (RSC) has launched an innovative workshop for children of classes III to VI to work together with their parents as “science buddies” and come up with activity-based projects every Sunday.

The free-for-all programme began today on the RSC premises with the participation of 10 families.

With the help of four instructors, the participants worked on Newton’s disc – a disc with pie-shaped segments in colours of the rainbow through which a string is passed.

When the disc is spun, the colours fade to white, thereby proving Isaac Newton’s theory that white light is a combination of seven colours of the rainbow.

“The faster we rotated the disc, the whiter it appeared. It was fun.

“Earlier, whenever I attended science camps on weekends, my father would wait outside for hours until it was over.

“But today, he was here all along, helping me with my project,” said Anchal Priyadarshini, a Class VI student of DAV Public School, Chandrasekharpur.

N.B. Sahoo, one of the instructors and education officer of the science centre, said the programme is an attempt to help children learn science in a joyful manner.

“The motive behind involving parents is to make these budding scientists feel at ease.

“It is a fact that the activity levels of parents and children are correlated,” he said.

The project materials were being provided by the centre and the participants were free to take the final output home.

The 30-minute activity was followed by science magic and planetarium shows.

“We presented some interesting illusions and the participants liked it a lot. Then they were taken to a mini planetarium set up where they learnt about the solar system and star patterns.

“Through this, we are also trying to give them lessons in astronomy,” said A.B. Biswas, the programme in-charge.

The centre officials said the response to the workshop, titled Family Learning Programme, has been overwhelming and they have already registered participants till October.

“This programme would be our weekly feature now onwards. We are expecting more students and parents to register with us,” said Sahoo.