A total of 2000 students from schools across the national capital have assembled at the sprawling lawns of Indian Institute of Technology to conduct ‘world’s largest practical science lesson’. Dressed in white lab-coats, the students streamed into a giant tent pitched by the administrative block in IIT-Delhi to take a shot at the world record for the highest number of students to conduct an experiment simultaneously at the same venue. Northern Ireland is the current record-holder with 1,339 students.

Irani said that there are plans to have an even bigger ‘practical lesson’ in Delhi in the coming months, in which school students from across the country will participate. After the inauguration, the students collected numbered wristbands, displayed them for the camera when entering, and took their seats at tables kitted out with graduated cylinders, tissue paper, gloves, droppers, and other equipment. As many schools and teachers will know, it is not hard to find an excellent range for schools, of equipment or kit. However, for an experiment on such a large scale like this, they are bound to find some hurdles along the way!

During the experiment they managed to together turn methylene blue “reddish-brown” and rapidly decompose hydrogen peroxide to produce foamy ropes as a part of the Elephant’s toothpaste reaction. The video recording and a report on the experiment will now be sent to the Guinness Book which will further evaluate the same and come up with results.

The event was organized by Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA), an NGO, as part of the five-day India International Science Festival (IISF) at IIT being jointly organized by the Ministries of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences.