Who doesn’t love playing with toys? But, have you ever wondered who makes your favourite playthings?
Have you ever wondered who makes the toys you love so much? How do they conceptualise and create them? If you love playing and have a creative bent of mind, you could explore the possibility of making a career out of toy designing.
Scroll through these slides to learn more.
Did you know that the southwest monsoon is not the country’s only rainy season?
When we speak of the rainy season, it is almost always about the southwest monsoon. But did you know that there is another weather phenomenon that impacts peninsular India? Scroll through these slides to learn about the northeast monsoon, which is now in action.
Is curd prebiotic or probiotic? What about garlic? In this interactive task, you need to sort out the probiotics and prebiotics.
There are multiple foods that give us strength and help us stay healthy. Probiotics and prebiotics are two such categories. What are they?
Probiotics are foods that contain live microorganisms that help maintain or improve the “good” bacteria in the body. Prebiotics are those, usually high in fibre that act as food for human microorganisms. They are used to improve the balance of these microorganisms.
Here is a game for you to learn more about them. Drag and drop the various foods under the correct category.
Ecology refers to all life forms and their relationship with the environment. Can you unscramble these words commonly used in the study of ecology?
Ecology is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment; it seeks to understand the vital connections between plants and animals and the world around them.
The word ‘ecology’ is derived from Greek. Eco comes from the word ‘oikos’, which means ‘household’; -logy comes from logos, meaning ‘the study of’. Simply put it is learning about the life of populations. Ecology is the study of the environmental house including all the organisms in it and all the functional processes that make the house habitable with emphasis on the totality or pattern of relations between organisms and their environment.
Here are some words used exclusively when talking about ecology. How many of these words are you familiar with? Can you unscramble these words?
Episode 48: How did King Nemi get the name Dasaratha? Read on to find out…
Illustration: Sahil Upalekar
When Manthara went to the palace to bring them food, Dasaratha and Kaikeyi continue to work in the practice arena. Dasaratha triggers a hinge in the chariot to make the vehicle do a smooth 180° flip. When he sees Manthara come out with a tray of snacks, he lands the chariot before her.
Manthara: You can continue with the story, as you eat.
Dasaratha: So, Brahma wanted to save Indra from Shambara and was looking for someone with special skills.
Kaikeyi: Didn’t anyone else have those skills?
Dasaratha: Many people have talents but you have to keep doing something to reach the right people. I kept exhibiting my skills so that others knew about it.
Manthara: But isn’t it risky to fight the asuras? You are a king. What if something had happened to you? Who would have looked after the kingdom?
Dasaratha: Manthara, to move to the next level, sometimes one has to take risks. Anyway, I took my powerful bow, hollow arrows and tons of sugar and potassium nitrate and flew up into the sky. When I reached the ozone layer, it was under attack by Shambara who was using chloroflurocarbons (CFC).
Manthara: What is CFC?
Illustration: Satheesh Vellinezhi
Dasaratha: Okay let me explain. To protect the Earth from Surya’s harmful radiation, we have the ozone layer, which is filled with O3 molecules. However, these molecules can be destroyed by CFC chemicals. So Shambara began to attack Indra from all sides with CFC and that began to weaken the king of gods.
Kaikeyi: Very smart of him!
Illustration: Satheesh Vellinezhi
Dasaratha: Not really. Shambara wanted to target only Indra but, by attacking the ozone layer with CFCs, he could have killed all life on Earth. Indra did not know how to cope. That is why Brahma called me in.
Manthara: There is one thing I don’t understand. Why did you carry sugar with you?
Dasaratha: Well, sugar is a fuel. It is used in solid propellant rockets. The potassium nitrate acts as an oxidiser. You need to mix it in a specific ratio. So, for 100gm of propellant, you need 35% sugar and 65% potassium nitrate.
Dasaratha shows Manthara and Kaikeyi how the two ingredients burn vigorously when mixed.
Manthara (astonished): I never knew that sugar could be used in warfare!
Dasaratha: I use this to propel my arrows at very high speed and also to move my chariot in all directions. So, to continue my story, I reached the ozone layer and cleared all the asuras surrounding Indra’s palace very easily. But Shambara was powerful and faster than I expected. When he began attacking me from all directions at supersonic speed, my brave and talented charioteer saved my life.
Kaikeyi blushes while Manthara looks confused.
Manthara: Who was your charioteer?
Kaikeyi: It was I. I created an iron dome as a shield and also gave him healing potions. He was very angry and destroyed Shambara with his hypersonic arrows. That is when Brahma was impressed and bestowed on him the title ‘Dasaratha’.
Manthara: Wait! You went with him to fight an asura? How come I did not know?
Kaikeyi: If you had known, you would have never allowed me to go. So, in return for my help, Dasaratha gave me two boons.
Manthara: You never told me all this. I do so much for you and you hide things from me. So, what did you ask for?
Dasaratha: She is yet to ask for them. She probably wanted to consult you about what to ask for.
Manthara smiles and hugs Kaikeyi. Suddenly, four arrows fly in towards Manthara’s legs. Kaikeyi pulls her to safety and turns angrily to see where the arrows came from.
The writer is the founder and CEO of Vaayusastra Aerospace, an IIT-Madras incubated ed-tech startup that offers Air Science workshops for children between five and 14 years.
Now that you have read all about it, try this activity. These are words related to climate change. Can you fit them all into the grid?
Punctuation marks indicate how a piece of written text should be read and, consequently, understood. Which one reflects your personality?
The English language has many punctuation marks. You might be using them regularly though you may not know the names. Here are some punctuation marks you use on a regular basis.
The Full Stop, Question Mark, Quotation Marks, Apostrophe, Comma, Hyphen, Exclamation Mark, Colon, Semicolon, Parentheses, Brackets, Ellipsis and Slash.
Now try your hand at this fun game and see what punctuation mark you are.
When we say theatre, we could be talking about many things: performing arts or even items associated with the place of performance. Can you use the clue to find the word in the grid?
The stage is set, the showlights are on, and it is time to perform. How much do you know about the world of theatre? Find out with this exciting wordsearch.
On your mark, get set, go! Match the athletic events in this quick memory game.
Do you know what events are included under athletics? Track and field events comprise a wide range of running, throwing and walking events — sprints, hurdles, throws, jumps, relays, walks, and so on.
Here’s a fun memory game for you. Can you match the cartoon images with the actual pictures of athletes practising the sport?
Photos: AP, Wikimedia Commons
Learn more about early man with this interactive game. Can you arrange the tiles in the correct sequence?
The timeline of prehistoric man spans a vast period and varies across different regions of the world. Here’s a general overview.
Arrange the images in ascending order of their existence.
Now that you have figured out the order of how humans evolved, learn more about what happened during the time. Click on the arrow on the left to read about the specific time period.
Explore the world of angles where lines converge and Maths meets art …
