In 2022, Kuwait Children’s Science Congress which was organized by Science International Forum was my first time participating in a Science exhibition. This exhibition was held at Smart Indian School on 25th November which was a Friday. This being my first experience in a science exhibition, I gathered lots of knowledge.
Our project was titled as “Spice it up – Pom masala” – A masala made by using pomegranate peels that are usually discarded. We also created several other products from pomegranate peels like scrub, tea, and a manure for plants. We took part in the junior category of the exhibition and our team included myself, Arfa Aala Ayoob and Sanskriti Gupta and our guide being Ms. Varsha Arunkumar. Our schools principal Ms. Geetika Ahuja also played a huge role in guiding our project as she gave us some ideas to improve our product.
We had to go through a junk of ideas before finalizing this as our project. We had many ideas in mind but as we tried they just kept failing until we tried this one. This idea was great but the only problem was availability of pomegranate peels in Kuwait, but we were able to collect them through our friends and teachers. We prepared and packed all of our products in our schools chemistry lab.
A day before the exhibition we prepared our presentation and all the materials that were going to be displayed. We were all ready for the presentation.
Now on the day of our exhibition we set up our stall and later we had to attend the inauguration of the ceremony. After the inauguration, the first round began where the judges started reviewing our projects. We had to explain our project to the judges and we also answered the queries the judges had. This empowered us to explain our project thoroughly and had inspired us to be more innovative. We were able to successfully complete our presentation with the help of our guide, Ms. Varsha and with the support of our biology teacher Ms. Rufee.
After the first round was over, students, guides from other stalls approached us and we had to explain them the concept of our project. We too visited other stalls and gathered lots of knowledge from other stalls too. Then came the moment which we were waiting for which was the Viva session. I and Sanskriti entered the Viva session room along with Varsha ma’am. This session was an impulsive answering session in which we had to explain the judges the making of the product, explain our previous ideas mentioned in logbook, our future studies and many more.
As the day ended all we were curious about was the result.
3 weeks later, the results were announced. Though we did not win, we were honoured to collect the knowledge and information on the day of exhibition and with now new hopes, thoughts and experience we will be working on our next project. I give a hearty thanks to the principal of our school, Ms. Geetika Ahuja, our guide, Ms. Varsha Arunkumar, teachers and our parents for their support throughout the journey.
Thanking Science International Forum for giving all students an opportunity to present their ideas and for organizing this event every year.