Committedly, 160 high school students from 65 public schools in Campinas and the region filled the auditorium of the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FCM) at the opening ceremony of the 17th edition of the Science & Art on Vacation program, promoted by the Dean of Research of the Unicamp. The program, which this year runs from January 07th to February 02nd, has as main objective to awaken young talents to scientific research and artistic activities, involving them from an early age in practical activities in which there is contact with the current challenges of science, the methodology of scientific work, the human environment of research laboratories and the different forms of artistic expression. But it also aims to strengthen contact between Unicamp and public high school teachers in Campinas and the region, Limeira and Piracicaba, with regard to improving curricular content and improving science teaching practices.
The project involves the development of research activities in Unicamp laboratories under the guidance of professors and researchers, including workshops and monitored visits. It covers all major areas of knowledge: arts, human sciences, exact and earth sciences, biological and health sciences and technologies.
Rector Marcelo Knobel, who presided over the opening ceremony, states: “It is always a joy to come and open Ciência & Arte nas Férias, in which high school students from public schools in Campinas and the region take part, as with this At this event we have the possibility of awakening in these young people an interest in science and art and showing the importance of public universities. It’s a joyful event to start the year off right.”
Biology Institute professor Daniel Martins de Souza, who represented research dean Munir Salomão Skaf, considers that “this event constitutes an opportunity for Unicamp to show a little of what we do here. Nothing more fair than a university, considered one of the best in Latin America, offering the opportunity to students from public schools in the region to get to know it, because after all, it is their parents who pay taxes that support this university. But the most important thing is to encourage them to start a scientific or artistic career by getting to know a place where they can eventually study.
Professor Tiago Ferrari, who represented the Department of Education of the Municipality of Campinas, says that he came to support a program that his department understands as extremely important for the inclusion of young high school students in university and for the knowledge of scientific methodologies through proposed practices. He also remembers that the Education Department maintains the Science & Arts in Winter Vacations program, which involves more than 300 elementary school students, organized jointly with Unicamp and consisting of thematic workshops with students from the municipal network. “I often say that I am the son of Unicamp professors and that despite my proximity to the University, including living close to it, it was through events of this nature, at the Open University at the time, that I effectively felt the presence of Unicamp and acquired a broader vision. broad scope of its meaning.
Representing the mayor of Campinas Jonas Donizette, the municipal secretary of Culture, professor Ney Carrasco, attended. “I really like participating in this event because I saw the project born in 2002, when I was undergraduate coordinator, and I participated in the discussions to create the program and in its first edition by offering my workshops. It is a program that lives in my heart and that allows high school students to be immersed for a month at Unicamp, get to know it and prepare for their academic life, which helps to demystify common myths that accompany high school students in relation to the University. I’m happy that this program was so successful and has survived to this day.”
Also making up the opening panel were professors Teresa Dib Zambon Atvars, general coordinator of Unicamp; Eliana Martorato Amaral, dean of Undergraduate Studies, Nancy Lopes Garcia, dean of Postgraduate Studies; Antonio Admir Schiavo, regional education director for Campinas Oeste and Paula Adriana Grizzo Serignoli, teaching supervisor, representing the regional education director for Campinas Leste, Nivaldo Vicente.
