Bringing science to primary and secondary school students

After a successful European Researchers' Night, a science festival for the public at the Forum Groningen on 29 and 30 September 2023, the Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health organised a series of events to bring science closer to children in primary and secondary schools in the Northern region.

In October, several secondary school classes visited the Bernoulli Institute at the University of Groningen Zernike Campus to meet researchers and learn from them about how data is collected, processed and visualised to gain interesting insights into, for example, how heat affects our health and sleep, how to keep our home cool during heat waves, and much more. The tour was organised in cooperation with Science LinX, Bernoulli institute researchers Jiri Kosinka and Christian Kehl, and Hanze researcher Allard Roest. 170 participating secondary school students were very enthusiastic about the tour and are looking forward to new opportunities the universities in the North will offer to learn more about science.

In the month of November, it was all about toxics. UG researcher Stijn van Rijn discussed toxics and its effects on climate with approx. 80 children in primary schools. 150 children from different primary schools then joined a 'poisonous' excursion at the Dutch Food Safety Authority (NVWA) in Groningen. In the NVWA lab, the students learned about dangerous and prohibited substances in products such as make-up, paper straws, bread containers, textiles, toys and they could experience themselves what it is like to work in a lab.

The European Researchers' Night post events are funded by the European Commission, under the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme, grant agreement No. 101060416.