Pran-Frooto 17th Viqarunnisa Noon Science Festival

Pran-Frooto 17th Viqarunnisa Noon Science Festival, arranged by the Viqarunnisa Noon Science Club, was held from 28th February to 3rd March; the success of the event was reflected in the presence.
The four-day programme had physics, chemistry, biology, maths and astro olympiads along with science-based extempore speech, Sudoku and Rubik's Cube competition (each divided into groups of inter-wings, schools and colleges). These events were contested by about 800 participants from 22 different schools and 11 colleges. The fair also had a friendly debate which was hugely popular. Sky observation was arranged this time, like every other year. But it was the “Project Display” (total 364 projects) that was consistent in attracting the spectators this year too. The festival had food stalls run by students, and also a new extension to its collection of events. The panel this year arranged workshops for the upcoming events. And this new arrangement was praised by the students. The fair drew a huge crowd of nearly 4000 visitors including professionals and media personalities. All these were nicely conducted by a good number of volunteers.
Tanzim from class 7, Sunnydale School, said, “This is my first tour to a fair this big outside my school. The events and its participants give me a feeling that it's a gathering of all the brainiacs from the city. Besides, a friend of mine told me that they got to learn and practically make robots from the workshops here. I mean, a 7th grader making a robot, what can be cooler than that?”
The president of the Viqarunnisa Noon Science Club, Anurata Prabha Hridi said, “We've tried to present a program that would simultaneously get appreciation from people and be an inspiration to the students. I hope, our endeavours were a success and everyone liked it.”
The first day was reserved for the opening ceremony with Rashed Khan Menon as the chief guest, inter-school and college Rubik's Cube Competition and Sudoku. The inter-college quiz was also held on that day. The second day comprised of school level olympiads along with inter-wing and inter-school quiz competitions. All the college-level olympiads and the extempore speech competition of all levels were held on the third. Finally, the fourth and the last day started with the closing ceremony, having the Pro-Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University, Nasreen Ahmad, as the chief guest. Friendly debate, unveiling the Science Club magazine “RIDDHI” and the prize giving were done that day too.
Viqarunnisa was few of the only schools 17 years back, that had dared to display projects let alone a whole science festival. Indisputably, for this year, the bar was set quite high. For an event this enormous, the proficiency and professionalism that the organisers exhibited to put this all in chain together within a few days raised eye-brows of everyone associated.
The fair had Pran Group as its sponsor, Igloo as the ice-cream partner and Shomoy TV as the media partner.