The UB Science Festival celebrates its tenth anniversary with record-breaking participation
News
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Research
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Institutional
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Divulgation
(03/05/2024)
The University of Barcelona's Science Festival is celebrating its tenth edition this year with more workshops than ever before: seventy-nine. In these workshops, researchers from a wide range of disciplines will explain the research they carry out at the UB in an entertaining way. On Friday 10 May there will be workshops aimed mainly at school groups, while on Saturday, 11 May, (the second day) it will be open to the public. These activities will start at 9.00 a.m. and will finish at 2.00 p.m. (both days).
News
|
Research
|
Institutional
|
Divulgation
03/05/2024
The University of Barcelona's Science Festival is celebrating its tenth edition this year with more workshops than ever before: seventy-nine. In these workshops, researchers from a wide range of disciplines will explain the research they carry out at the UB in an entertaining way. On Friday 10 May there will be workshops aimed mainly at school groups, while on Saturday, 11 May, (the second day) it will be open to the public. These activities will start at 9.00 a.m. and will finish at 2.00 p.m. (both days).
Visitors to the UB’s Historic Building will find workshops on food, archaeology, biology, astronomy, neuroscience, geology, physics, linguistics, mathematics, chemistry, medicine and law, among many other subjects. In some cases, 3D techniques are used (a virtual walk through the Milky Way) or virtual reality (for example, to travel to the world of molecules). Another example is the archaeobotany workshop, where you can discover what our ancestors ate or how a medieval vegetable garden was cultivated.
This year, the festival includes novelties such as the one presented by researchers from Fine Arts: a sound walk in which you can listen to the signals of the Earth’s magnetic field emissions and solar activity. Another novelty is the biology researchers’ workshop on a little-known problem of the aquatic environment: noise pollution in the oceans.
The UB Science Festival becomes an annual tradition
This year, the Science Festival is also breaking the record regarding the number of participating researchers: nearly 450 researchers. As far as the public is concerned, more than 1,300 schoolchildren have already registered for Friday and the number continues to rise, while in the previous edition the number of those registered was 1,000.
“I think that the UB Science Festival has become a day that both the public and researchers look forward to. Whoever tries it, repeats, and convinces those around them to sign up, and this is the best indicator. With this scenario, I think we are getting closer to other science festivals with a longer tradition, such as those of some English universities, for example”, says Marga Becerra, head of the UB’s Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit. Becerra also stresses that this growth and consolidation are accompanied by the awareness that the Festival is sustainable: “For example, we try to make the T-shirt version as ecological as possible; we have replaced materials that generated undesirable waste; we have tried to reduce paper printing and, in addition, this year we have produced numerous bags made of recycled canvas to replace some cardboard boxes in which we keep the material from the workshops”.
The Science Festival is organized by La UB Divulga and is supported by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology. Researchers and volunteers take part, mainly UB students and PTGAS.
This year, the festival includes novelties such as the one presented by researchers from Fine Arts: a sound walk in which you can listen to the signals of the Earth’s magnetic field emissions and solar activity. Another novelty is the biology researchers’ workshop on a little-known problem of the aquatic environment: noise pollution in the oceans.
The UB Science Festival becomes an annual tradition
This year, the Science Festival is also breaking the record regarding the number of participating researchers: nearly 450 researchers. As far as the public is concerned, more than 1,300 schoolchildren have already registered for Friday and the number continues to rise, while in the previous edition the number of those registered was 1,000.
“I think that the UB Science Festival has become a day that both the public and researchers look forward to. Whoever tries it, repeats, and convinces those around them to sign up, and this is the best indicator. With this scenario, I think we are getting closer to other science festivals with a longer tradition, such as those of some English universities, for example”, says Marga Becerra, head of the UB’s Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit. Becerra also stresses that this growth and consolidation are accompanied by the awareness that the Festival is sustainable: “For example, we try to make the T-shirt version as ecological as possible; we have replaced materials that generated undesirable waste; we have tried to reduce paper printing and, in addition, this year we have produced numerous bags made of recycled canvas to replace some cardboard boxes in which we keep the material from the workshops”.
The Science Festival is organized by La UB Divulga and is supported by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology. Researchers and volunteers take part, mainly UB students and PTGAS.