30 June 2006
Annually and during one week professors, researchers and
students from the French-speaking universities mobilize
themselves to put sciences at the range of all. By an anthology
of activities and playful experiments, the objective is
to stimulate the interest and the curiosity of the young
people and to make the world scientific more accessible
and more alive. This free initiative is made possible thanks
to a close cooperation between the universities and the
high schools of the French Community, as well as many partners
that encourage education and outreach of science.
This is a call to all members of the BE-POLES
cluster and those who have sympathy
for the cluster activities, to have a coordinated action
at the different universities. As the next 'Printemps-des-sciences'
is now in the preparatory phase and the 2007 edition- from
19 till 25 March 07- will focus on 'Sciences Extrêmes'
(Extreme sciences), it serves as a superb possibility to
present activities, talks, demos, ... related to polar research.
Moreover, it coincides with the start of International Polar
Year.
In 2006, 5 partners from the BE-POLES cluster invited secondary
school students to discover polar science within the framework
of the ‘Printemps-des-Scieces’.
The umbrella organization ‘Réseau
Scité’ will help
you to find who is your local organisators and any interest
can be communicated to Annick
Wilmotte or Sandra
Vanhove.
4 May 2006
Class@Poles the educational contest
within BE-POLES has now closed. Five classes contributed
creative projects and have won a trip to the North.
- Project
1, The ‘Collège Cardinal Mercier’ in
Braine-L’Alleud designed a thermal drilling machine,
intended to penetrate vertically while dissolving the ice
of the satellite Europa around Jupiter. A prototype could
be constructed for testing at the Poles.
- Project
2, entitled ‘Albedo’,
from another class in the same school, set up an experiment
to test the impact of soot pollution on the melting
of snow.
- Project 3, submitted by
the ‘Collège
de Bellevue’ in Dinant, focused on the Southern
Ocean food chain. Special attention was paid to the very
small organisms that serve as food for larger animals.
- Project
4, ‘expedition Spitsberg’ was
geographically focused. A class from the Koninklijke
Atheneum Wetteren’ wondered whether the needle
of a compass is always directed to the north.
- Project
5, was concerned about the
health of the Inuit, endangered by the industrialised
lifestyle of southern country people. The ‘Koninklijk
Atheneum Voskenslaan’ in
Gent wanted to study PCBs, metaloxides and pesticides
in tissues of animals and human beings.
Each class delegated a junior research
worker to take their question to the field during an expedition
to the North in the Easter school holidays, 31 March to 16
April 2006.
During
the first “leg” of
the expedition, Tromsoe - Longyearbyen – Tromsoe a
team of junior scientists could explore the Svalbard polar
world through a visit to Tromsoe Museum. One surprise followed
another during the exploration of a mine, and there was great
amusement for all during introductions to dog sledging and snow scooting.
Some time was also spent trying out the compass experiment
(project 4).
The
second "leg" started from the Arctic Circle,
near the Svartisen glacier. At the legendary Lofoten islands
the youngsters were introduced to a range of scientific
themes, from geological processes on continental shelves
in the Arctic region, to oceanic streams, and from
sea birds and mammals to deep sea corals. There was also
a focus on the reality of human impact on polar regions.
The expedition leg was completed with a visit to Narvik
war museum and the Hakon Mosby research vessel. Here
some attention was paid to the compass study of project 4.
During
both expedition legs the junior scientists were accompanied by polar
experts from the Renard
Centre of Marine Geology (Ghent
University), native guides or scientists
from the University
Centre in Svalbard (UNIS).
More information can be found on the dedicated class@poles
website (Dutch
and French).
