Children Science Festival (CSF) 2026 organised by PSF, Vudhavai Karangal and Samam, 1–3 May 2026, Apres School, Periyakattupalayam, in memory of Thomas Pragasam.
Preceding the festival, two preparatory meetings were held on 21st and 28th April in which various preparations – resource persons for each corner, confirmation of participation of students by Samam, venue logistics were discussed. Wide and consistent participation from different teams who met within themselves and prepared corner activities. On 25th and 30th April, teams of resource persons assembled at the festival venue to identify suitable rooms and prepared their respective corners with decorations and materials.
Day 1: Friday, 1 May 2026
Registration started at 9am as students and resource persons assembled at the venue and by 11 am batching of students into eight groups of approximately 25 students in each group were done according to age group. The formal inaugration started at 11am with songs. Ms. Pachayammal, Coordinator of the festival welcomed the gathering and Ms. Sankaradevi compered the inauguration session. Ms. Ezhil Kalpana, State Project Director of Education Department gave the special address followed by a break (with nice parai drum music and some dance) and the ‘Meet the Scientist’ session was held.
Prof. Madivanane, former President of PSF gave an introductory talk on scientifc understanding in daily life and answered questions from students. Prof. Prasanth Ravindran, current President gave an overview of the energy technologies, problems in distribution and consumption, looming energy crisis and highlighted the need to conserve enery and move towards green energy. A skit on human evolution for played by a team of students from Vudhavi Karangal. Ms. Elavarasi, Samam thanked everyone for their participation and the gathering disbursed for the lunch break.
Post lunch, students went to their respective corners in two sessions. A resource persons meeting was held in which the day’s activities were reviewed and the next day’s preparations were discussed, in particular the field visit to the coastal ecosystem.
In all we had about 73 resource persons covering eight corners of science, math, astronomy, artificial intelligence, origamy, nature, theatre and photography. Each of these corners had their own set of interesting activities which will need to be documented with the help of resource persons.
Day 2: Saturday, 2nd May 2026
As requested, everyone assembled around 9am at the venue 
and two sessions were held by 12:30pm followed by an early lunch break. Dr. Balachandran, renowned ecologist of the Coromandel Coast gave an orientational talk to the resource persons about the significance of coastal ecosystems to prepare them for the coastal walk.
After a slightly shorter post lunch session, three buses borrowed from Satya Special School and one from Vudhavi Karangal (thanks to Hemavathi, Murugavel and Ramesh) transported the children to the Nallavadu coast where everyone assembled in a sacred grove and then toured through sand dunes, an olive ridley hatchery and an introduction to fishing practices. Forced by the children, they spent some quality time on the beach and left around 5pm.
Slightly lower attendance of children (around 160) and resource persons (around 50) but needs to be confirmed with Samam team who handled the registration.
Day 3: Sunday, 3rd May 2026
Three sessions started at around 9.30am and closed by 3.30pm with a special lunch thrown in between. The valedictory commenced by 4pm and certificates were distributed to the children and the resource persons by a team of visiting invitees.
They were,
- Ms. Lakshmi, Deputy General Manager of Power Grid Corporation
- Office bearers of Round Table and
- Rotary Clubs of Pondicherry, who supported the event with caps and water bottle kits
and also other generous individual donors. The Parai music team were also back to play some to finish off (which kindled some unexpected enthusiasm from everyone across board).
Good show by everyone, thanks to committed efforts from such a large team of volunteers.
