Day two of the India International Science Festival (IISF) in Anna University campus at Chennai saw the making of a new Guinness World Record for the Largest Biology Lesson. One thousand forty nine (1049) students participated in the record breaking session. While inaugurating the Largest Biology Lesson, Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Science, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that it is the vision of the Prime Minister, Shri. Narendra Modi, to encourage and promote science and the Govt. of India has launched many Flagship Programmes in this regard. He also invoked C V Raman and how he has won the Nobel Prize, which is first by any Indian to do so.World Record attempts have been a key part of India International Science Festival since 2015, which leads to encouragement and popularizing of Science through public participation. In IISF 2015, students took a successful shot at the Guinness World record for the world’s largest science Lesson at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. In IISF 2016 at National Physical Laboratory, Pusa, New Delhi, a group of 550 students attempted the world record for largest gathering of people dressed as Noble Prize winning scientist Albert Einstein.
The World record which was created in the IISF Chennai 2017 had students from Class 9 and Class 10. Students from 20 local schools participated in the event. The biology lesson was delivered by Ms. Lakhsmi Prabhu from Shri Shankar senior Secondary School. A live demonstration on the process of isolation of DNA from Papaya fruit was also part of the program.Dr. Harsh Vardhan congratulated the students and felt proud of their effort in creating New Guinness World Record. He added that he was confident about the students earning the World Record and also felicitated the teachers from the local schools in his congratulatory speech. The Minister also said that teachers across the country deserve this award and Prime Minister Modi must also be very happy that students have achieved this record at the IISF 2017, Chennai. Union Minister in his congratulatory speech encouraged the students to be good scientist, passionate about science and above all be good human beings and said that he will pray for their success in the future to become great scientist and teachers.The program was also attended by Secretary Ministry of Earth Sciences, Dr. M. N. Rajeevan, Girish Kumar from Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) and Dr. R Venkatesan Head of National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT).