My science project from Std V

I recently came across an article that reminded about my school Science project in Std V.

In our elementary school, every winter vacation we had to do a science project, where we had to research on a subject and make a poster, live project, prototype, etc. on some science topic we learnt in school that year. The best of the projects throughout school would then be selected for a project display that year. Of those, couple of good ones would be selected, and sent for further interschool competitions. I guess this was the standard procedure in most of the schools in our area in those days.

Most of my school projects were quite unmemorable. I remember only two, the ones that I had done in Std V and Std VI. Both these projects were selected for the school level display. In Std VI, I made a poster on AIDS. Std VI would mean 1990-1991. Those days I didn't know anything about sex, and had no idea at all about the disease. I had a neighbour who was studying to be a doctor, I referred to many fat books that I borrowed from her, and made a huge poster. Those were the days when no one, I guess not even most of the teachers had heard of HIV or AIDS, and hence there was a huge curiosity about what I had done. The project got selected for the school level display, but as compared to other live, working prototypes, it didn't hold on its own, and sadly I did not make it then to the interschool level.

The earlier year, when I was in Std V, I had learnt about the concept of good and bad conductors of heat at school. So that winter I was wondering whether I could make any science project with the heat conduction principles in mind. When I checked with my mom, she suggested that since we need heat to cook items, boil rice and pulses, I can think of something on those lines. On further discussion with her, we came up with an idea. Take a small box and stuff it with thermocole, which is used for packing delicate items. Thermocole is a bad conductor of heat. Place a semi heated and covered bowl of lentils immersed in water in the box filled with thermocole and leave it for couple of hours, and the lentils should be cooked and ready to be used. When we actually implemented it, there were couple of flaws and the lentils were not cooked enough: 1) Thermocole pieces when stacked would still leave some air gaps and the heat would escape from the air gaps. 2) The heat was just not sufficient for the experiment. Further working on the prototype led to the following model: Cover the box with black colored craft paper that was available in all the local stores, and leave the box in the hot sun. The black color would attract more heat from outside and retain the heat inside. Also rather than thermocole, fill the box with sawdust. The reasons being sawdust was smaller in size than tnermocole and hence the air gaps were lesser. This option worked fine, and in fact I realized that I also didn't need to pre-heat the lentils in water as much as earlier. I just had to leave it outside in the hot sun. The black colored outer part of the box would attract the heat and transmit it to the steel bowl and after couple of hours the lentils would be cooked enough.

The project was quite successful and appreciated and went upto the interschool Mumbai level with that project representing my school and my ward. Sadly at the interschool level, I did not make it.

It kills me today when I read in the newspapers that a similar idea has been patented as the Kyoto Box and as the world's cheapest solar cooker, and the idea has even got a grant of $75,000 to be developed further.

When I look back on my life, maybe I will count this as one of the opportunities that I lost upon.

Speaking about lost opportunities, an excerpt from David Sedaris' write-up 'Guy Walks into a Bar Car':

"When you’re young, it’s easy to believe that such an opportunity will come again, maybe even a better one. Instead of a Lebanese guy in Italy, it might be a Nigerian one in Belgium, or maybe a Pole in Turkey. You tell yourself that if you travelled alone to Europe this summer you could surely do the same thing next year and the year after that. Of course, you don’t, though, and the next thing you know you’re an aging, unemployed elf, so desperate for love that you spend your evening mooning over a straight alcoholic."

The opportunities lost in my case and David's are completely different, but the feeling is the same.

Click here to read more about the Kyoto box.