EX.I.T.E . (EXploring Interests in Technology and Engineering) Camp held from 23rd to 27th June, 2008

for girls of Classes 8 to 10

In the last week of the Summer Break, IBM- Daksh organized the EX.ITE camp (Exploring Interests in Technology and Engineering), and chose 15 girls from Vasant Valley School and 15 girls from Sanskriti Secondary School (Girls), Gurgaon to attend it.
   On the first day of the Camp, we were paired up with girls from the other school and had to work with them as 'buddies' for the rest of the week. Our first activity was an aero modeling session with Ms. Mangala Gowri- we created aero planes with paper and wooden sticks which were then propelled with rubber-bands. Then, we made robot cars with Lego and programmed them to move in specific directions and move under a given set of conditions.
  On the second day, we had a session with Mr. Raj Nehru who talked about How Creativity and Innovation is an essential part of Information and Technology. We also had to create posters and had discussions/debates on the 7 habits of highly effective teenagers, based on the book by Sean Covey. We played a game called the prisoners dilemma which basically taught us that it is never good to win at the cost of making others lose further, but by improving oneself.
   The third day we had the Global Warming projects conducted by Mr. Vinayak, where we basically saw the movie 'An Inconvenient Truth' and talked about how there had been a sudden increase in carbon dioxide emissions and climatic changes after industrialization. We created a solar cooker and an engine that worked on wind power and talked about other renewable sources of energy.
  On the fourth day we had three different sessions, first we talked to Ms. Nandita Jain Mahajan, the head of information and security of IBM, then Pranab Sharma , an alumnus of VVS and Mr. Vinayak who told us about the virtual world and second life, which you could enter with your avatar. The last session was with the CEO of IBM- Daksh, Mr.Pavan Vaish who shared experiences, told us about his life, and did a programme on the computer to create an electric circuit.
  The final day we visited IIS Laboratories which was followed by the Closing Ceremony to increase the number of girls taking science as a profession). We were also assigned mentors who would advise us and support us with our decisions throughout the year.
On the whole, I had a great time and it was a very good opportunity to understand the different career opportunities that one can pursue with science.

Supriya Subudhi
Class 10

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