International project «BeTech»: Norwegian fjords, STEM and «House of Salmon»
- 17.02.2020
1660
On February 10-14 the Russian delegation took part in the second trip within the international project «BeTech: developing common approaches to involving young people in the technical and natural science sphere».
This time students and teachers from MASU and other schools of the Murmansk region visited the Arctic University of Norway, Alta. The programme was very interesting and rich!
The Russian delegation included representatives of the international Department of MASU (Inna Ryzhova and Yulia Shestova), lecturer in mathematics, physics and IT-technologies (Irina Lazareva, Oleg Lyash and Asya Lyash), as well as teachers and students of educational institutions of the city and the region (Gymnasium № 1, Murmansk Academic Lyceum, Murmansk Cadet School and Murmashi Secondary General Educational School № 1).
All participants of the project were divided into multi-language groups. Then these groups had three days to learn how natural science may be applied in various spheres of life. It was nice to meet old friends and make new ones.
On the first day the students listened to a captivating lecture about the major activities of the energy company «Equinor», answered questions and took part in a team engineering competition where they built the highest towers of spaghetti and marshmallows.
The second bright impression of that day was a visit to the so-called «House of Salmon» — a place where everything you may need to know about the breeding of Norwegian salmon is told in a clear and simple manner. The children had the opportunity to trace the entire path from a roe to an adult fish and learn about the various aspects of accompanying and monitoring the process of salmon breeding at each stage.
Especially exciting was the sport event organized in the gym of the University: at first, the children had to get acquainted with various unusual sports equipment and then they had an obstacle race. The equipment at the race was unusual as to use it the children had to apply their knowledge of natural sciences and mathematics.
The second half of the day was spent at the Alta Museum: the students listened to a popular-science story about the study of the Aurora Borealis at the latitude of Alta and about a geodetic research. Then everyone got the opportunity to look through the Museum’s exposition.
On the second day the participants got acquainted with modern technologies. The children took part in a workshop on making 3D models and could print those models out on a 3D printer. It was very interesting to learn about the work of a visualization centre: everyone had a chance to test the 3D model of a fire station and use a special software to find out how 3D-imaging (virtual reality glasses) works.
The day ended with a project work where the teams had to prepare a short video on the following topic: «Future professions in the field of Natural Sciences and Mathematics».
The third day of the trip began with an unusual mathematical study. It turns out that you can examine even an ordinary piece of paper! The guys plotted the dependence of the area of a sheet of paper on the number of folds and tried to deduce the functional dependence of these two values.
Teachers at the same time had an opportunity to discuss the most significant educational issues: how to motivate children to study mathematics and science, how to work with gifted children, how to promote vocational guidance of students, etc. The third day ended with the presentation of the videos prepared by the children.
The next stage of the project will take place in spring 2021 when the Norwegian and Finnish schoolchildren and their teachers will come to Murmansk for a return visit. It is assumed that MASU will be a co-organizer of this meeting and one of the venues for events.
Videos of children can be viewed here.
Report of the Norwegian national television.