Jyoti Ranjan Sahoo, a Class X student of DAV Public School, Unit-VIII, Bhubaneswar, receives the National Child Award from President Pranab Mukherjee for his exceptional achievements in the field of science, research and innovation. The tech geek has designed “Eyerinator”, a device that would enable people suffering from various eye ailments to see. The project has been approved by AIIMS, New Delhi, LV Prasad Eye Institute and seven other institutes. Telegraph picture

Booklovers’ club

The 29th National Book Week, organised by the National Book Trust (NBT), was observed in the state from November 14 to 20 to encourage a reading habit among youngsters. On the first day, top authorities from NBT conducted an interactive session between children’s authors and 15,000 tribal students of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, Bhubaneswar. Another event was organised at the Subhadra Mahatab Mahavidyalaya in Asureswar with a book release of six Odia titles.

“The Bhubaneswar event was the first programme in the country during the National Book Week. The children pledged to read a variety of books and derive maximum pleasure out of it, gift new books to their school library, know the world through books which are our past, present and future. We also collaborated with NGOs, booksellers and publishers to observe the week by organising various programmes at their level,” said Manas Ranjan Mahapatra, head of NBT’s National Centre for Children’s Literature.

Scientific temper

Aamlan Saswat Mishra, a student of DAV Public School (Unit-VIII), Bhubaneswar, earned accolades for his project, Ozonator, at the 9th CBSE national-level science exhibition in New Delhi. The project emphasised on use of space debris, which can be reengineered by implanting ozone generator, chlorofluorocarbon filters, methane filters, data communication, power generation and tracking systems, he said.

“Such a re-engineering work will be capable of rejuvenating the atmosphere within a short time. The cost can be recovered from the persons and companies generating and polluting the environment,” said the young scientist Aamlan, who got a cash prize of Rs 3,000, is the only one from the east zone to have achieved this feat this year. DAV Public School, Unit-VIII has been receiving this prize for four consecutive years.

Beyond ‘site’-seeing

Students of Delhi Public School, Kalinga, visited the Barbati Fort, Cuttack last week to create awareness among youths about the importance of conserving heritage sites, as part of Delhi Public School Society’s “Adopt a Monument” programme.

They undertook a cleanliness drive around the fort and displayed placards stressing on the need to preserve and conserve the state’s historical heritage. They also enacted a skit Dharohar on the spot to sensitise the locals.

The participating students and their mentor teachers had done intensive research beforehand on the Barbati Fort by collecting documents, photographs and legends associated with the ancient monument.

Happy 50 years

The golden jubilee year of the Unit-I Boys’ High School, Bhubaneswar, was celebrated on November 10 and 11 with great fanfare. Odisha governor M.C. Bhandare inaugurated the event and released a special cover issued by India Post to commemorate 50 years of the school. The celebrations began with a mini marathon flagged off by chief secretary, B.K. Patnaik — an alumnus of the school.

Hundreds of students and ex-students participated in this “golden run”. Thereafter, several activities were organised such as debate, quiz, essay, music competitions. A free diabetes check-up camp was held and retired teachers of the school were felicitated. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik attended the valedictory function.

Athletic meet

A group of girls from DAV Public School (Chandrasekhapur), Bhubaneswar, won the runners-up slot in the recently-concluded CBSE Cluster I and II Athletic Meet in Bokaro, Jharkhand. The jubilant team includes Akshita Patel, Nisha Mohanty, Lipsa Das and M. Akshita Prasad, who took part in the under-14 events.

The event saw participation of 1,700 students from over 60 schools of Odisha, Bengal, Jharkhand and the seven northeastern states. DAV Chandrasekharpur had sent a 10-member contingent, comprising five boys and five girls, to the athletic meet. Eight of them have qualified for the national round to be held in Chennai next month. Apart from the girls, the others who have made it to the final level are Chinmaya Ranjan Jena, Sanjay Singh, Subrat Swain, Kamakhya Prasad Nayak.

Golden boy

Sameer Kumar Sahoo, a Class V student of Nirmala Convent School, Keonjhar, received a gold medal for securing full marks in the second English Olympiad conducted by Science Olympiad Foundation, New Delhi. He was recently felicitated at the Rabindra Mandap in the state capital.

Award for school

Sai International School, Bhubaneswar, has been selected as one of the top 20 schools in the country to win the Design For Change (DFC) challenge this year.

A group of students from Sai International undertook a project “Reading Rainbow” and converted an old storage room of a government school in Patia area into a colourful library. Disney will sponsor this success story in its Edutainment centres and would be published by Amar Chitra Katha. DFC is a global movement, started by a Gujarat teacher, which empowers children to be the change they wish to see in the world.