HR4RS stamp
Irene Vega
A total of nine Madrid institutes have participated in the fifth edition of this event, organized by the Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences (FCJS). In addition, this year the contest has had the collaboration of the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit (UCC+i) of the URJC and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), dependent on the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
In the final phase, the 14 selected contestants had to get on stage and present their monologues to the public and to the jury, made up of people from outside each of the participating centers and related to the world of science or entertainment. "We have verified the project as an educational practice that motivates students, teachers and families alike to investigate and innovate new methodologies for science classes and the transmission of their contents," explains Juan Carlos Aguado, professor of Economics at the URJC and contest coordinator.
The first prize went to Víctor Abia, a student at IES Villablanca, who positively assessed his participation in the contest: “I have understood that with science, something that seems to be rigid and irrefutable, one can have a great time and learn a lot ”.
The other awards have been given in the categories of Communication (Pablo Navarro, IES Miguel Catalán), Content (David Gómez, IES Villablanca) and Staging (Paula Dendariena, IES Madrid Sur).
Training in communication skills
The contest is the final product of a training and collaboration process in which teachers and students acquire the basic knowledge and tools to use the educational resource monologue. For this, prior to the celebration of the final phase, training sessions have been carried out in which it has launched its own methodology for the creation of scientific monologues and their staging. "We have tried to encourage the teaching staff of the centers involved to propose to the students to carry out demonstrations in class of scientific monologues, such as Famelab or Locosxciencia", comments the URJC professor.
science popularizers Big Van Science y Alioth art&science and professors from the IES Joaquín Rodrigo have given different workshops to explain the characteristics of the scientific monologue, its educational potential, the resources for the elaboration of the text, as well as the staging, body language or voice. “Fostering creativity and developing verbal and corporal expression techniques seems to me to be universal learning for students, no matter what they do,” Alicia Monjas, professor at IES Valdebernardo, points out.
Promotion of activities to promote interest in science
One of the main missions of the UCC+i, dependent on the Office of the Vice-Rector for Research, is to promote scientific dissemination activities by members of the university community. In this sense, this year it has shown its support for the FCJS Science Monologues project. “This format is an original resource, which is widely accepted. To do this we have to develop less conventional skills that allow the use of these resources when exposing a research project”, highlights María Jesús Alonso, scientific manager of the UCC+i. In addition, the contest fulfills another of the objectives of the UCC+i: to awaken interest in science among young people.
