The Faculty of Physics of the University of Valencia has convened the XV Edition of the Experimenta Physics and Technology Experimentation and Demonstration Fair-Contest aimed at students of secondary education, vocational training and intermediate training cycles. The STEM projects prepared by the students will be exhibited and explained at a festive event open to the public on April 5 at the Príncipe Felipe Science Museum of Valencia. Enrolment for this event is free and open until February 2 at http://go.uv.es/experimenta/inscripcio.
Experimenta celebrates this year its fifteenth anniversary with the declaration, in addition, of project of social interest beneficiary of patronage. This is a recognition of the Valencian Government to this proposal, which aims to disseminate the scientific culture of citizenship, make women and girls visible in science and improve the science and technology education of students, supporting scientific vocations and offering recreational activities to children.
This way, Experimenta aims to turn students into active and creative science protagonists and disseminators. With the help of a tutor, individually or in groups of a 4 people maximum, the participants will have to prepare a STEM pilot project in order to show it and explain it to the public at the fair (where there will be around 5,000 attendees). The proposals will demonstrate some physical principle or its practical application, and especially the interrelationship between them.
Although in the Experimenta fair-contest there are two categories of competition (demonstrations and experiments of physics or projects of technological applications) the purpose, in both cases, is to work through projects the connection between science and technology with an significant experimental component. Among all the projects presented at the fair, five prizes will be awarded. Four of them will be valued at €300 and the rest, to the project most voted by the visiting public, with €200. Various honourable mentions will also be awarded.
The organising committee of the event is formed by the Professor of the Faculty of Physics Chantal Ferrer as coordinator and Jordi Vidal, Miguel V. Andres and Amparo Pons. In the contest rules it is emphasised that the good operation, the correct understanding of the work on the part of the participant groups and the clarity of the explanations will be aspects of a very high value. At the end of the fair, the awards ceremony will be held. The organisation takes special care of women participation in physics and technology initiatives in which, for some years now, they make up 50% of the approximately 400 contestants.
Among the recognition, prizes will also be awarded to the departments of the teaching staff with winning projects and the work associated with the supervision of the projects presented as an innovation project recognised by the Valencian Education Council will be certified. There will also be an exhibition after the Experimenta Fair of the winning projects, in which videos of the participating students will be recorded explaining the proposals, which will be uploaded to the Internet as educational and dissemination materials.
This initiative has a competitive project of the FECYT (Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities), in addition to the collaboration of other entities, such as the Príncipe Felipe Science Museum of Valencia, the Valencia City Council, the Institute of Corpuscular Physics (IFIC), the Spanish Royal Society of Physics, the UV Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit-Chair for the Dissemination of Science, the Delegation for University Integration of the UV, the Centre for Education and Quality and the UV Equality Unit, the Archimedes Physics Work Group, the ScienceFlows Research Group, and external entities such as Caixa Popular, APTCV and Analog Devices.
Experimenta was born in 2005 with the objective of involving students in the World Year of Physics in an active and creative way. The enthusiasm of the contestants and visitors was extraordinary and contributed to transforming it into an annual event.
More information about Experimenta 2020:
http://go.uv.es/experimenta/feria20
http://go.uv.es/experimenta/fira20
Experimenta 2020 enrolment: http://go.uv.es/experimenta/inscripcio
