Ilango Adigal government school begins its academic year in style

The Hindu

6 days ago

The Ilango Adigal Government Higher Secondary School at Mutharaiyarpalam has initiated the academic year in style, with its students brainstorming to create an interactive doll that emits alerts about unsafe touch.
The school, known for its initiatives in the past of inculcating scientific temper in students through experimentation of theories from science classes, has this time, encouraged students to apply physics lessons for a practical outcome.
A group of Class 12 science students relied on the principle of Law of Conservation of Energy to develop an interactive doll — named 'Zara' — which helps in warning children about unsafe bodily touches. The students, from what they have imbibed in their physics classes about transformation of energy, under the guidance of teachers, made three dolls of fibre reinforced plastic which sends out loud alerts when someone touches the body in an inappropriate manner.
When the doll encounters unsafe touch, it will give out a cry — 'No, don't touch' — and then read out a brief about the POCSO Act as a forewarning.
'The touch-sensitive dolls are multi-lingual. The dolls are equipped to speak in Tamil, Hindi and English. The idea originated in classrooms, and we used the facilities at our Atal Tinkering Laboratory. This is also our effort to educate students on sexual offences,' S. Sriram, lecturer in Physics, Ilango Adigal School said.
The school has organised an event to present a demonstration of the doll on its premises on Tuesday. A POCSO awareness song titled 'My Body, My Right,' composed by the students and tuned by the head of the institution K. Kokilambal will also be presented at the function.
In the previous academic years, the school had come up with several innovative scientific models with active participation of students. Last year, they presented a working model of Van de Graff Generator made using locally available materials, such as plastic pipe, stainless steel utensils, rubber belt and a 12 DC motor. The French-era school had previously developed a mechanised braking system for temple cars with the assistance of Atal Tinkering Lab.