The activity promoted by INVOLCAN took place at ITER (Granadilla) and La Orotava and aims to promote scientific vocations.
The Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands (INVOLCAN), has gathered more than 400 schoolchildren at the Science and Volcanoes Fair, an initiative aimed at promoting scientific vocations among students in 3rd and 4th year of Compulsory Secondary Education and 1st and 2nd year of Baccalaureate, in which 11 schools have participated. The closing ceremony of the event took place today, May 16, at the Teobaldo Power Theater of La Orotava and was attended by the Councilor for Innovation, Research and Development of the Island Council of Tenerife, Juan José Martínez; the mayor of the northern municipality, Francisco Linares, and the scientific coordinator of INVOLCAN, Nemesio Pérez.
The aim of these events is to arouse interest in science and volcanism among young people. The idea is that they learn to do science through cooperation as a working method and through the projects proposed by INVOLCAN and developed in their schools, students participate in the different phases involved in carrying out a scientific project. This involves other things such as teamwork, collaboration and the joint search for solutions.
The Science and Volcanoes Fair is a school science congress during which the results of the scientific work developed by the students are presented. These are linked to various projects related to the volcanic phenomenon in the fields of experimental sciences, social sciences and arts. The projects have been tutored by the teachers of the schools with the support of INVOLCAN scientists.
The schools that participated in the activity developed at ITER last Thursday were CEIPS Santo Domingo (Güímar), IES Santa Ana (Candelaria), IES El Médano (Granadilla de Abona) and IES San Miguel (San Miguel). On the other hand, the Teobaldo Power Auditorium was attended today by students from Colegio Casa Azul (Puerto de la Cruz), Colegio Salesiano (La Orotava), CEO La Milagrosa (La Orotava), IES Mayorazgo (La Orotava), IES La Cruz Santa (Los Realejos), IES Los Realejos (Los Realejos) and Colegio Internacional Pureza de María (Los Realejos).
During the Science and Volcano Fair, the documentary “Teide, the sleeping giant” was screened and the Volcanic Olympiad, an educational tool for learning the main terms related to volcanology, was held. The contest is based on questions and answers about the volcanic phenomenon and volcanic risk management in order to assess the degree of knowledge of schoolchildren on this subject. In this edition, the winning groups of the Volcanic Olympiad were, in 1st place, the Blue House, named in the Olympics as Etna Volcano and in 2nd place the Salesianos School under the name of Mauna Loa Volcano.
On the other hand, the winners of other categories of participation were also chosen. In the category of Experimental Science Projects has been in 1st place the IES Realejos with the project “Fluoride in the waters of Tenerife”, in 2nd place the Colegio La Milagrosa with the project “Study of the mass of ash in contact with water” and in 3rd place the Colegio La Milagrosa. “Modification of the PH of water with two types of ash”. In the category of Social Projects, the first place went to IES Cruz Santa, with the project “How much do we know about volcanology in the Canary Islands?”, the second place to Colegio La Milagrosa with the project “Tajogaite” and the third place to IES Mayorazgo with the project “Chronicles of the historical volcanoes of the Canary Islands”. In the Audiovisual Arts Projects category, the first place went to Casa Azul with the project “Geology” and the second place went to Casa Azul with the project “Transversal Design of a volcanic tube”.
