Shaping users to be innovators

Scintilla Science Club, one of the oldest and most prestigious science clubs of Dhaka city hosted their 60th Annual Science Fair from the 11th to the 19th of March, 2016 in the premises of St. Joseph Higher Secondary School, Dhaka. The much coveted science fair had over 60 institutions with well over 400 projects in total. Students from classes 3 to 12 showcased their concern for the problems of the city and tried to reach achievable solutions through their inventive projects surrounding the theme'Save Environment, Save Life'.
The science fair hosted the first ever RoboFest for high school level in the country. It included 10 robots,  2 drones and a replica of the beloved DreamWorks robot Wall-E. Four robot related competitions - the Robo Soccer, Path Finder, Robo Fight and Robo race were held.
With Olympiads, science-based extempore speech, programming competition, sudoku competition, rubik's cube competition, scrap book and art competition, the club encouraged the young minds of the city to have clearer concepts in scientific topics which in turn would help them to turn into innovators from mere users. Weekly science-based workshops wereconducted by the graduates of this institution currently studying in science department of public universities since the month of February to help the participants bring their ideas to life by giving them technical support and training.
Chief guests  Mr. Srikanta Kumar Chandra, Controller of Dhaka Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education and Dr. Ijaj Hossain, Professor of Chemical Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) shared their valuable experiences with the junior  scientists in the opening and closing ceremony respectively.
President Ahmed Hasnain Mashuk and his group of over one hundred and fifty executive members conducted the festival smoothly ensuring discipline under the guidance of the chief moderator Amit Kumar Barai. Sudeb Paul and Swapan Kumer Mistry, along with other moderators, worked hand-in-hand to make the event a success.
The writer is an advisor of the Scintilla Science Club, [email protected]