HR4RS stamp
Irene Vega
The activities scheduled for edition This year's Science à la carte sessions have had the participation of nearly 200 high school students from the Science branch. The scientific community of the Higher School of Experimental Sciences and Technology (ESCET) has shown pre-university students different areas of knowledge taught at the school.
The objective of these sessions is for participants to learn first-hand about the work of scientists and their work spaces, as well as to choose “à la carte” the activities that, due to their content, are most attractive and beneficial for their training.
For three days, 16 dynamic and participatory activities have been carried out in which the knowledge of the attendees has been tested. The students have been able to participate in workshops, demonstrations, experiments, exhaust rooms and visits to the laboratories to learn about different lines of research carried out at the URJC.
“As always, all the researchers and teachers involved appreciate the participation of the institutes. This year, we have been able to accommodate many centers in the southern area and the teachers have been happy with the interest shown by the students who have participated. Many of our teachers repeat each year presenting different activities, which also indicates how interesting they find these days. And every year we achieve more than fifteen activities,” highlights Pilar Martínez Hidalgo, academic coordinator of Academic Planning and Degree Quality of the Science Branch of the ESCET.
“It is very important to continue with this initiative, not only to allow the institutes to visit our university, but because it is necessary for the general public to have access to the research carried out in the universities. All the researchers and teachers involved carry out workshops in areas of knowledge in which they are experts and this transfer is vital to interest high school students in science,” he adds.
These conferences are part of the calendar of events to promote scientific culture that the Vice-Rectorate for Research, Innovation and Transfer carries out through the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit (CCU+I). Carrying out these activities is possible thanks to the call for aid to promote the scientific, technological and innovation culture of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) – Ministry of Science and Innovation. In addition, this initiative is part of the activities Researchers at Schools within the European Researchers' Night (MADRIDNIGHT) project, a consortium coordinated by the madri+dy Foundation funded by the European Union within the Horizon Europe Program, under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (with grant agreement no. 101061343) .