Nurturing young scientists at CCMB
It is not every day that school students get a chance to interact with scientists and conduct scientific experiments but 24 students from different schools including from Bidar in Karnataka spent two weeks at the Centre for Cellular Molecular Biology CCMB as part of the Young Innovators Program YIP, an annual programme
Tarnaka: It is not every day that school students get a chance to interact with scientists and conduct scientific experiments but 24 students from different schools including from Bidar in Karnataka spent two-weeks at the Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB) as part of the Young Innovators’ Program (YIP), an annual programme.
It lets school students of grades 8-10 apply for the programme. The first leg of the programme allows all the applicants to interact with eminent scientists and know about their works.
It is followed by a selection test, where generally the top 15% are selected to spend two weeks at CCMB. This year 133 students evinced interest and 24 were selected.
These two weeks at CCMB give students a flavour of what pursuing science is like, perform some of the classical experiments, and get trained in the scientific method of thinking. They visit different labs in CCMB, observe the works that happen there and interact with the researchers who work in those labs.
They do hands on experiments including isolating their own DNA from their cells, watching chromosomes, working with some of the common animal models. During these two weeks, the YIP participants also gain an insight on different career opportunities in science, spanning from research to entrepreneurship.
The program aims towards having better informed high school students on the different possibilities that lie ahead of them, and encourage them to be more curious and inquisitive.
YIP 2019, the 5th program in the row, was inaugurated on Dec 26th by Dr Harsh Gupta, scientist at CSIR – National Geophysical Research Institute, on a captivating talk on India’s success in predicting tsunamis.
