Science of H2O resistance in A Coruña

The enthusiasm of dozens of school children who participated in the activities carried out in the tents installed in the park was once again the key element of this initiative, which this year celebrated its eighteenth edition after receiving the 2023 award by the scientific platform SYNTEX, which is supported by the European Commission.

The interest it continues to arouse among the scientific and educational world means that this year a record number of participating entities were reached, including schools, institutes, colleges, associations, university research centers and foundations, which had to be distributed in different places in the world. Garden to put 62 tents.

“It almost got out of control,” commented Marcos Perez, the center’s director. Science museums in CoruñaHe expressed the wide participation, which he justified by “there being a great desire to be present in the street again.” Regarding the activities on offer, he highlighted that “there are new things that we have not seen before, so it is exciting to see all of this.”

Perez also alluded to the role students play in Science Day in the streets, warning that “the essence of it is that the logic of the school world is being subverted here, where the teachers rule and the children do what they do.” They tell them.” In contrast, in Santa Margherita “the opposite happens, where the children take the floor, also in front of unknown adults and students from other centres, and this unusual interaction has a wonderful result.”

The tent tour made it possible to see all kinds of scientific displays. An experiment carried out by students of the Otero Valcarcel Public School in Caral allowed us to think about a “hurricane in a bottle”. To do this, they connect two bottles, one of which contains water. After shaking it, when it was turned over, water fell into the other, but only through its walls, while air rose from the void towards the other, forming a “tornado” in the middle of the water.

Students from the Franciscan School of La Coruña explained to the visitors their experiments in dissecting chickens and pigs to learn about their respiratory, excretory and digestive systems. One of the students explained: “It’s interesting because we can see what we learn in class and what the real organs are.” Very young girls from the Magdalena School, in As Pontes, explained how this substance dissolves by immersing pieces of polystyrene in acetone, and also with the help of magnets, they made paper butterflies with a clip inside.