Puppet classes make learning science fun

What do puppets have to do with rain harvesting, fissures in the earth’ surface and environmental issues?

A lot, if you ask the participants at the just concluded workshop organised by the Indian Science Communication Society at the Regional Science City in Lucknow.

The 35-odd students from various schools mastered the art of ‘Joyful Science through Puppetry’. They made puppets, then wrote scripts on issues related to science and then did a bit of acting to convey the message to the audience.

“The workshop was designed to familiarise children to issues that concern their lives. We brought in puppetry because it made the whole experience of learning science rather joy ful. It was a unique marriage of science and arts and the children enjoyed it thoroughly,” says Mr P. K. Jain, education officer at the Regional Science City.

The participants, all of them from class 7 and above, took up the issue of rain harvesting and water conservation and enacted it through a puppet skit titled Pakdo, Pani Bhaga. The issue of the earth surface developing fissures due to excessive ground water exploitation was also addressed by the children.

Pahada Pa Ka highlighted the relationship between tree and water while Kahan Se Kahan Tak underlined the pollution due to increasing vehicular traffic. It also urged people to understand the need for a clean environment. Niyati Das, a class 9 student who participated in the workshop, found the experience ‘unique and interesting’.

“We got to learn how to make puppets, how to write scripts for plays and how to act.

Somewhere in between, we also learnt about science and its impact on our lives. With my friends, I now plan to star a similar workshop in my colony,” she says.

Mr Jain says that the idea of the workshop was top spread the message through children.

"American Idol" concludes on ratings upswing

The upset "American Idol" victory by rock singer David Cook drew nearly 32 million U.S. television viewers on Wednesday night, up 3 percent from last year's finale, Nielsen Media Research reported on Thursday.

The two-hour broadcast on News Corp's Fox network marked the second-most-watched episode of the smash hit talent contest this season, behind only the 33 million-plus viewers who tuned in for the debut of the show's seventh installment in January.

The Nielsens rally came after weeks of record low ratings. And "American Idol" finished its latest run down year-to-year for the season as a whole in both overall average audience size and in ratings for viewers aged 18 to 49, the group most prized by advertisers.

It was the second straight year of season-to-season declines though the finale's ratings could be adjusted when the final Nielsen data comes in.

"Idol," which generally airs twice weekly, averaged about 28.1 million viewers per broadcast for the current season, compared with 30.8 million at the height of show's popularity in 2006. But it remains by the far the most watched show on U.S. television.

The unexpected triumph of Cook, 25, who was tending bar and playing in a band before he auditioned for the singing competition, marked one of the more surprising outcomes of the series.

His rival, 17-year-old David Archuleta, went from being the contestant widely dubbed "The Chosen One" to runner-up after a record 97.5 million votes were cast by fans of the show on Tuesday night, final performance episode.

The show is produced by 19 Entertainment, a unit of CKX Inc, and by FremantleMedia, a division of British-based RTL Group., which is controlled by media giant Bertelsmann AG.