About 350 students from thirteen colleges and institutes in the town present the results of the research they have carried out in recent months at the School of Forestry Engineering, in front of committees made up of about thirty researchers from UVigo and CSIC. They do so at the XIII Miniscience Fair, the final event of the Pontenciencia program, promoted by the City Council of Pontevedra, with funding from the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) – Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and with the support, among others, of the Vice-Rectory of the Pontevedra campus. After promoting 43 workshops in the different educational centers, the 13th edition of this program aimed at bringing the scientific method closer to primary and secondary school students is completed this Friday and Saturday with a fair that combines the presentation of more than 27 investigations with more than twenty workshops and informative activities.
The research on musical instruments and on the work of Alfonso X the Wise of the students of CEIP A Xunqueira, the study on the organisms existing in the water of the Calasancio school or the analysis of the amount of sugar present in the drinks of the CEE Pontevedra are three of the eleven projects carried out by students from eight primary schools, in the category of Science in School. On Friday morning, it was up to them to present their work to the members of the scientific committees, chaired by the professor of the EE Forestal Purificación Marcet, starting two days of activity in the center. In the same way, they also showed the results of their experiments to the Councilor of Education, Demetrio Gómez, and the director of the school, Ángeles Cancela, in the inaugural visit of an event that closes at noon this Friday with the delivery of prizes to the best projects in the different categories.
“Our mission as a University is to serve society, so we are happy to give up our spaces for any type of event, but more for one that has to do with science,” emphasized Cancela, who focused on the value of Pontenciencia so that children can both get to know the facilities in the center and “the research that is done here”. Likewise, the director of EE Forestal also highlighted the potential of this activity as “a way to give visibility to science among girls”, in a context in which “there are fewer and fewer” female students “who want to study careers in science and technology”. In this sense, both the presentations and the different workshops that take place in these two days at the center are “a good way to encourage them from an early age and to make them know the scientific methodologies and how to work in science”.
Two Days to Get Closer to Science
The programming of this Miniscience Fair is completed with more than twenty workshops and informative activities, which on Friday morning were aimed at the students of the participating schools, while the proposals planned for this Saturday will be open to the general public. Among them are also several initiatives starring UVigo research staff, such as the workshop that on this day showed the students the work that is carried out in EE Forestal both using images from the Sentinel satellites and LiDAR technology, by the hand of Professor Julia Armesto. Also on this day, the participants were able to know, in a practical way, different applications of the studies that are taught at the School of Industrial Engineering, while on Saturday it will be possible to learn about the work of the UVigo Space Lab student association.
Likewise, this event also allowed the students to learn about the challenges of the scientific escape room Alerta Verde, promoted by Cintecx thanks to FECYT, and aimed at children becoming energy inspectors and solving the environmental problems of their educational centers. Likewise, the fair also has the participation of the students of the University Program for Seniors (PUM), who will star in three of the workshops scheduled for this Saturday, Everything is science, Scientific puzzle and The gymnasium of the mind.