A Science Quiz competition for college students was held on 08.06.2022 at the ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute in Coimbatore as part of the Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav celebrations to commemorate 75 years of our independence.
The competition was attended by approximately 50 students from prestigious colleges such as Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, VIT School of Biosciences and Technology, Vellore, Mar Athanasios College of Advanced Studies, Thiruvalla, Kerala, Avinashi lingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Studies for Women, Coimbatore, Karunya Institute of Technology and Science, Coimbatore, and Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Allahabad.
The competition was hosted by Quiz Master Dr. D. Puthira Prathap, the Institute's Principal Scientist. Five teams were formed, dubbed "Janaki ammal," "C.A.Barber," "T.S.Venkataraman," "N.E.Borlaug," and "M.S.Swaminathan." The quiz consisted of five general rounds, followed by a Visual round and a Buzzer round.
While a few questions went unanswered, such as the origin of Green Fluorescent Protein and the identification of Francis Crick, an English molecular biologist whose birthday fell on the day of the quiz (8 June), the majority of the questions were enthusiastically answered by the teams. Team "Janaki ammal" finished first with 65 points, followed by teams "N.E.Borlaug" (60 points), "M.S.Swaminathan" (55 points), "T.S.Venkataraman" (50 points), and "C.A.Barber" (50 points) (20 points). The winning team received certificates of appreciation and gifts. The audience also received gifts for answering passed questions.
Earlier, Dr. G.Hemaprabha, Director of the ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, stated that this quiz competition was the first of its kind to be held at the Institute. Such quizzes, she says, encourage students to work together and think critically.
Dr. R. Viswanathan, Head, Division of Crop Protection, Dr. C. Palaniswami, Head, Division of Crop Production, Dr. A. Ramesh Sundar, Principal Scientist, and Dr. H.K.Mahadevaswamy, Scientist were among the quiz competition observers. The quiz program's scorers were Dr. A. Vennila, Principal Scientist, Dr. K. Mohanraj, Senior Scientist, and Dr. V. Krishnapriya, Scientist.
