Around 700 primary and secondary school students from 12 schools in the region were at Unicamp this Thursday (23) for the 50st Chemistry Festival. Between cabbage, vinegar and sheets of aluminum foil, the children were invited to carry out experiments and learned that science is part of their daily lives. “The idea is to show how science can be fun, and particularly chemistry. We want to encourage a taste for science and curiosity. The kids are going crazy!” said event coordinator Cátia Ornelas. The event, sponsored by the American Chemical Society (ACS), is part of the celebrations of the XNUMXth anniversary of the Unicamp Institute of Chemistry (IQ).
For the chemistry and physics degree student at Faculdade Educação (FE), Letícia Moreira, the festival was also an opportunity to learn how to teach and come into direct contact with children. “It’s great to be able to present chemistry in a simple way and see how interested children become. They leave here wanting to study and reproduce the experiments at home,” she said. The 50st Chemistry Festival had the participation of more than XNUMX volunteers, including professors and undergraduate and postgraduate students. “The institute’s teachers are amazed by the joy and dynamics that the children brought here to our work environment”, commented Ornelas.
Professors Caio Oliveira and Paulo César de Souza Filho, from the Departments of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry respectively, proposed the Secret Message experiment to the children. On sheets of aluminum foil, children were invited to write messages with their fingers dipped in lemon juice. The message was only revealed after the sodium hydroxide solution was sprayed on the paper. “Events like this festival are of the utmost importance, as they show high school and elementary school students that science is not something distant from their lives,” highlighted Oliveira.
Marilda Scarabelli, second-year Portuguese, mathematics and science teacher at the "Físico Sérgio Pereira Porto" State School, says that much of what students see here can be used to develop concepts and content in the classroom. “They participate a lot, they get excited and end up learning a lot of interesting things,” she comments.
The Chemistry Festival has been promoted by ACS since 2010 and has already reached more than 58 thousand participants worldwide. In addition to training organizers, ACS offers financial assistance to hold the event outside the United States. Unicamp was the first venue for the event in Brazil. Find out more details about the notices at website.
