Class 11 students Kiran P. Abraham and S. Rakshan of Kamala Niketan Montessori School (KNMS), Tiruchi, emerged victorious in the Tiruchi regional round of Shaastra Spark, a quiz competition, organised by students of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Madras, here on Saturday.
It is open to students of Classes 8 to 12, and questions are framed to test participants on problem solving, arithmetic, science and technology. It was conducted simultaneously in Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchi, Coimbatore, Cochin, Trivandrum, Calicut, Bhilai, Kolkata and Chandigarh yesterday. Saturday’s event, held at the KNMS campus, saw the participation of 53 (two-member) teams from Kamala Niketan, St. Patrick Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Puducherry, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Puducherry, R.S.K. School, Tiruchi, and Vageesha Vidhyashram, Srirangam.
Both the preliminary and qualifying rounds required teams to write answers to questions projected on a screen, that were corrected by IIT student-organisers S. M. Sudharsan and K. Venkatesh. Of the seven teams that went to the qualifying round, six were from KNMS, and a solo participant, J. Jayakrishna (Class 11), was from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Puducherry. The final round had students answering questions in two sections – on general knowledge and science. The second section asked students to identify scientists from posters symbolising their work.
Jayakrishna was placed second in the final round. Regional winners Kiran and Rakshan will take part in the national finals to be held in IIT-Madras later this year.
