Outreach Events

Photos

The Warsaw Science Festival is a yearly initiative that started in 1997 and is aimed at enhancing public awareness of science and technology. Over 500 activities take place in different formats (seminars, debates, guided tours, workshops, performances, contests, films), representing various fields of science. They are aimed at different target groups (young children, primary school, high school, general public) and are run for two weeks in various universities, scientific research institutions, museums, etc for nine days.

The Festival is run by over 1.000 scientists from around 140 Warsaw institutions: 25% of the funding is provided by the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research, 65% comes from the scientific institutions and 10% from various sponsors.

It is the largest popular science event in Poland: in 2006, there were approximately 60.000 visitors!

This year EMBL Science Education Officer Alexandra Manaia visited the Warsaw Science Festival on 27-30 September 2007. She was hosted by the Science Festival School (SFN) team, based at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IIMCB). The SFN participates actively in the Warsaw Science Festival, organising several activities accessible to the public.

The Science Festival School is an educational initiative founded on the basis of the agreement between the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology PAS, the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics PAS, the Warsaw  Agricultural University, the BioEducation Foundation and the Warsaw Science Festival. The SFN team aims to bridge the gap between science and society, by running regular laboratory workshops that are aimed at students and courses that are aimed at teachers, as well as by training talented secondary school students, by organising open lectures, etc.

As the activities were run in Polish, the SFN team arranged for PhD student Marta Przewoznik to be Alexandra's guide. With Marta's precious help, Alexandra could visit many initiatives taking place in various research institutions within Warsaw, namely activities aimed at primary school children:

• Chemistry focused: building molecule models, performing simple chromatography experiments and preparing edible colloids (cream, jelly)
• Physics focused: a lecture on the principles underlying the formation, the form and stability of soap bubbles, several activities demonstrating principles of electricity, magnetism, mechanics and thermodynamics, etc.

On Friday, 28 September Alexandra discovered the Researchers' Night event, a European-wide initiative involving science museums, science centres, academic and research institutions in different countries that host a variety of entertaining and fun events on Friday late afternoon and evening. The SFN team had prepared various stands in the hall of the IIMCB: Some activities focused on health-related topics, such as nutrition or the effects of UV-light in skin cells, whereas others focused more on basic science issues, such as protein structure and function, developmental biology (using C elegans as a model to study development), evolution etc. (see Photos Section). Some of the activities proposed at the SFN stands were produced in the context of the Volvox project. Volvox is a project supported by the European Commission FP6 Programme, involving nine European partners, including the SFN. It is aimed at establishing an internet-based network to promote innovation exchanging knowledge and to encourage good practice to enhance bioscience education in European Schools.

The SFN team had designed special activities aimed at Polish journalists: Agniezka Choluj gave a talk on the 2006 Nobel prize in medicine and physiology, on RNA interference. Following the lecture, two PhD students introduced various topics related to DNA technology that are often misunderstood by journalists, such as the structure of DNA, the flow of information from DNA to proteins, technologies to make use of the information contained in DNA, etc. They instructed quiz and games and an interesting DNA fingerprinting practical activity.

On that same evening visitors could also follow guided tours to labs interacting with IIMCB scientific teams.

The visit to the Warsaw Science Festival was also an important opportunity for Alexandra to meet Agniezka Choluj, Joanna Lilpop, and other SFN members and to get a deeper insight into the initiatives they are involved in and the activities/materials that they have developed in view of future collaborations. Alexandra was particularly interested in their evolution related material: a board game and a PCR-based activity. It would be very interesting and useful to invite the SFN team to come and instruct these activities in the context of a LearningLAB about evolution.

Many thanks to the SFN members, especially to Agniezka Choluj Agnieska Choluj, Joanna, Lilpop Iza Szczupakowskaset and Michal Mlacki!

And a very special thanks to Marta Przewoznik!