Nowadays, out of all of the projects that have been awarded (awards and honourable mentions), 83% were for women, in an edition in which only 98 projects had been accepted. In figures, more people than ever have participated in the children’s workshop Fisicalàndia: 400. In addition, 1,900 out of 5,000 people who visited Experimenta applied their rights to vote.

Regarding the project awards, these were given at the Auditori Santiago Grisolía, in the Museu de les Ciències Príncep Felip of València, by Adela Valero, Vice-Principal for Employment and Training Services of the Universitat de València. 5 per category (four of them of 300 euros and the other for the most voted by the audience project, with 200 euros). 14 honourable mentions were also handed out. The jury, formed by university and secondary school teachers, valued the proper functioning, the correct understanding of the work and the clarity of their explanations.

The projects awarded in the category ‘Experiments i Demonstracions de Física’, were from the English School Los Olivos, in Godella (with the project Maxwell y la velocidad de la luz) and IES Dr. Peset Aleixandre from Paterna with Música maestro. Regardind the ‘Aplicacions Tecnològiques’ category, the awards were for the Sutherland High School of Pretoria (South Africa) for the project 6D-Bot Explorer and the IES Benlliure of Valencia with Maqueta de un aparcamiento. The audience award went for the Colegio Claret Fuensanta (València) for the Hivernacle proposal.

‘This educational and ludic activity has improved the method for learning science and technology, specially physics, through STEM projects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) carried out by secondary school students. Besides, the Fisicalàndia workshop for kids has had a lot of participants’, claims Chantal Ferrer, coordinator of Experimenta and teacher of Applied Physics and Electromagnetism of the Universitat de València. The organising committee of the fair and the contest is also formed by Jordi Vidal Perona, Miguel V. Andrés Bou and Amparo Pons Martí.

Among other things, the fair and contest Experimenta has the purpose of promoting science and technology, specially physics, for women, who where the half of the participants and were given with 80% of awards. There has also been a lot of interest in environmental and sustainability problems. Several projects were related to this issue and tried to show the importance of physics and techonology in order to understand it and look for possible solutions.    

Experimenta is supported and sponsored by the Spanish Fundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities; the Conselleria d’Economia Sostenible, Sectors Productius, Comerç i Treball, the Institut de Física Corpuscular, Valencia’s City Hall, the Real Sociedad Española de Física, Caixa Popular, the UV’s Chair of Dissemination and Public Communication for Science, the Delegation for University Integration or the Equality Unit, among others.

More information:

www.uv.es/experimenta

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