Seminar inspires students to study Chemistry

Royal Society of Chemistry-Deccan Chapter organised a seminar to educate students on the importance of taking up chemistry as their subject and its benefits

Pratima Shantaveeresh

Did you know that your day starts with using chemicals? Did you know your toothpaste has 20 chemicals? With an aim to disseminate more information and inspire students to take up Chemistry as their subject, Royal Society of Chemistry-Deccan Section (RSC-DS) in association with MHS alumni Association, organised 'Chemistry Demo and Science Quiz Programme' on Saturday. The seminar was organised at Model School Osmania University, Hyderabad. Around 100 students from various schools belonging to Class VIII, XI and X came to attend the seminar.

The seminar was inaugurated by Prof. T Tirupathi Rao, Former Vice-Chancellor of Osmania University. Prof. CV Chalapathi Rao, Retired chemistry professor at OU, gave a lecture on "Why Study Chemistry". In his speech he said, "We start using chemicals right from the time we get up in morning. Chemicals are very important for normal functioning of our body." Giving more examples he said that our shoes contain polymers, our meal is filled with protein and carbohydrates everyday and when we run after a bus, there is an adrenaline rush that runs inside our body. He also spoke about the reason why students should study Chemistry.

Prof. Krishna Kumari, Retired Associate professor, Singareni Women's Degree college, Kothagudem, highlighted the importance of Chemistry in our daily life. Prof. V Peesapati, Secretary, RSC-Deccan Section, educated children about hazards of smoking. He said smoking reduces ten years of our life. It causes lung cancer, cancers of mouth and throat, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer and harm caused by smoking is never ending. Prof. KS Shastri, Chairman of RSC-DC was also present.

Director Grade Scientist at IICT said in a chat, "One needs to develop the correct taste to enjoy the subject. A chemist should give up on his materialistic needs and should only concentrate on doing something for the society. He should visit schools and demonstrate experiments to school children."

He said that apart from becoming a lecturer or a researcher, graduates in chemistry can also join chemical industries. He also said they are in need for people with good knowledge of the subject. The seminar also had demonstration of few chemical experiments. The experiments were performed by Prof. V Peesapati and Prof. V Jayathirtha Rao. They demonstrated volcano eruption in one of the experiments. In another, they boiled egg in cold water. In one more experiment, they put a handkerchief to flames and the handkerchief didn't burn. They burnt paper without fire in another experiment.

The later part of the seminar, quiz was organised for students. The questions asked were taken from their syllabus. Few among them were-What are components of Brass? Calcium Oxide is basic or acidic? What is Lime Stone? It also had few general knowledge questions like who is 13th President of india? Who wrote our national Anthem?

16 students from eight schools participated in the competition. Vedic Vidyalaya School won first prize.