The Experimenta Fair-Contest, organized by the Faculty of Physics at the University of Valencia (UV), held its 21st edition on April, Sunday 26th, at the Valencia Science Museum.
The Experimenta Fair-Contest, organized by the Faculty of Physics at the University of Valencia (UV), held its 21st edition on April, Sunday 26th, at the Valencia Science Museum. This celebration of science attracted 300 participants, including students and teachers from secondary schools, baccalaureate programmes and vocational training courses, with students presenting around 70 experimental projects to the more than 2.500 people who attended the event, joined by visitors to the Experimenta TOP activity at Expociencia on May 9th.
The aim of the initiative is to develop a STEM-based experimental project on any subject, provided that it demonstrates a physical principle or its practical application—and, in particular, how these are interrelated—and to present and explain it. A new feature this year was the inclusion of two physics projects specifically designed for people with visual impairments, and a third project that featured simultaneous sign language interpretation for people with hearing impairments.
More than thirty student volunteers from the Faculty of Physics had been helping since the previous day to prepare Calle Mayor at the Science Museum to welcome the participating students to the Experimenta Fair on the sunny Sunday 26 April. By 10 am, everything was ready and the first visitors began to arrive, with numbers growing as the morning went on.
During this part of the day, the judging panel visited each stand and assessed the projects in preparation for the awards ceremony, which was to take place before the end of the exhibition and competition. The students, with their projects on display in the bright daylight, explained with conviction the principles underpinning their scientific proposals.
Meanwhile, the Fisicalandia children’s workshop presented simple, age-appropriate demonstrations based on natural phenomena to the children through games and hands-on activities. The activities organised on this occasion included jumping figures, the flying diabolo, a balancing mobile and modelling clay circuits.
At 1 pm, the sound of several sirens set off by the volunteers signalled that the exhibition was coming to an end. The participating groups packed up their displays and made their way to the museum’s Grisolía Auditorium to attend the awards ceremony.
RTVE physicist and meteorologist Marc Santandreu, a former student of the Faculty of Physics at the University of Valencia, presented the scientific interlude “Making Science Fashionable”, whilst the university’s rector, Juan Luis Gandía, highlighted during the institutional authorities’ speech the work that had been carried out.
The winning entries in the various categories of the Experimenta Fair were then announced, to cheers of excitement from the participating students present at the event. To begin with, the award for the most voted-for project in the “Experimenta 20 anys” exhibition went to “Pèndols onejants”, submitted by IES Massamagrell in 2013.
In the lower secondary physics category, the prize went to “Luces, cámara, ¡Dispersión!” by IES Beatriu Civera in Aldaia. “Aules que respiren”, from IES Massamagrell, won the equivalent award for the second cycle, and “Delta I”, from IES Joan Fuster in Sueca, was the winning entry in the Baccalaureate Physics category. A further seven groups with physics projects received honourable mentions in the various classifications.
In the secondary school technology category, “Sembrant futur” from CP Luis Vives in Sueca was the winning entry, whilst “The MIST-ERS”, from IES Joan Fuster in Sueca, won the prize in the baccalaureate and vocational training technology category. Three honourable mentions were awarded in this category, and “Las barreras salvan vidas” from CP Mariano Serra in Aldaia won the audience award.
The events did not end there, as the students who had won prizes and received honourable mentions presented their projects once again at the Experimenta TOP activity that took place during the Expociència event on Saturday 9 May at the Science Park of the University of Valencia.
The rain that fell that morning did not deter people from flocking to the ETSE-UV street where the project stands were located, keen to discover what the young students had prepared. In addition, cameras from the University of Valencia filmed their presentations, which will be made available online as open educational resources for wider dissemination.
The Experimenta Fair-Contest is organized by the Faculty of Physics at the University of Valencia, in collaboration with the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology- Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, as well as other organisations and institutions, including ScienceFlows.