Young scientists are growing up, laboratories and research are on display

The weekend was “school in the yard”, The classic BergamoScienza event, which this year saw a record number of participants: 51 schools from Bergamo and its province, each with its own platform Cintiron. Saturday and Sunday – September 28 and 29 – Crowded attendance – A great result for a non-commercial event – hundreds of children and young people participated as science conductors and thousands of visitors participated in Fun experiments and labs, interactive games and quizzes. The beauty of “School in the Square” is that each institute expresses itself in its own way: there are children in the nursery explaining how to form colors and high school students leading an interactive laboratory with two humanoid robots.

There are also comprehensive institutes that offer joint projects across multiple school levels, Such as “Paolo VI”, which presents an interesting work on bees that covers primary and secondary schools: “Each has its own level of in-depth analysis,” explains science teacher Raffaella Simone. We built “seed bombs” to raise awareness of the importance of protecting the environment, reproduced a beehive, and talked about the environment. The special thing is that the primary school students, in turn, introduce the world of bees to the nursery children.”

Aff Bergamo suggests trying the drunkard’s egg, which is also an experiment Preparing a molecular cuisine called “egg curd”: It involves cooking eggs cold to obtain a cooked egg but with the flavor of a raw egg and a texture that makes it usable in other preparations. The peculiarity lies in the use of ethyl alcohol, which causes coagulation of proteins. Students stay on topic “Food.” Sonzogni Hotel Institute in Nembro They demonstrate how aeroponic farming works by devoting themselves to gastronomic preparations (dishes, desserts, cocktails) with vegetables and fruits from traditional and non-traditional farming. Banquet “Myronie da Ponte” (Presizio) It presents interesting specimens of meteorites, even rare ones, which visitors can handle and appreciate thanks to the explanations of highly trained third-year students.

Pupils of Prempati Soto Primary School They have created volcanic models that simulate a volcanic eruption, using materials such as sodium bicarbonate, vinegar, dishwashing liquid, food coloring or temperatures. Villa Dalmi Primary School proposes creating simple digital animation films using stop-motion technology. Then there are laboratories to produce recycled paper; Visualize the sound of an idiophone, discover the secrets of the human body and its systems, experience virtual reality, and explore the properties of innovative materials and environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic.

“We wanted to create a biotechnology laboratory to show how close they are to our daily lives,” explains LBy Professor Giusi Coppolino who teaches science at “Enodi” in Dalmine. Fifth graders propose a classic science experiment: extracting DNA from a banana, and practice using research tools like micropipettes and mastering techniques like gel electrophoresis. “I find that BergamoScienza also represents an important mentoring opportunity,” concludes the professor. Even at Paolo Sarpi Classical High School we talk about science, Without abandoning the touch of “antiquity”: “We proposed to the second-year students a work on non-Euclidean geometry, which also includes the study of the measurement of Eratosthenes, the first to measure the circumference of the Earth,” he says. Professor Roberta Lilly.

Daniel Bonazzi, engineer and teacher, explains, He grew up with BergamoScienza and is now part of the scientific secretariat and school committee of the event. “Training is one of the pillars of BergamoScienza, and one of the best tools for transferring scientific knowledge is laboratory teaching, which is very effective. Knowing how to teach and demonstrate something is not like preparing for a test, you have to master and understand the subject.”