Tag Archives: #SDC22

Event Name: SAVE THE RAINWATER WITH STEAM

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Author: Gonca Koseoglu

Age Group: 2nd-years student (8-9 age group)

Event Date: February 2022

Applied Methods: Blended learning, Group study, Individual Study, STEM-based based on 5E learning cycle model events,

Pedagogical Approaches: Exploratory learning, problem-based learning, project-based learning, experimental activities
Inquiry-based learning and student-based learning approaches such as learning with

GOALS

1-Realizes the importance of water for living things,

2-Learn to calculate water footprint,

3-Learns ways to reduce water footprint,

4-Blue water green water learns what is gray water,

5-Learns that rainwater harvesting is used to conserve water,

6-Learns the types of rainwater harvesting and practices more,

7-Expressing their ideas clearly

8-Developing inquiry skills

9-Developing collaborative and creative thinking skills

10-Developing engineering skills

11-Solve the basic problem of daily life,

LOGIN

People’s lives depend on clean water. We are getting to the point where we cannot find clean water. change, industrial reasons, and people’s unconsciousness cause these. Therefore, it is very important to manage water resources.

On the other hand, the world population is increasing day by day. Similarly, industrial activities are also increasing. Moreover, we will have uninhabitable environmental pollution. Climate change is also getting worse. Some regions receive less precipitation. That means things are not going well

Also, areas with low rainfall will experience water shortages. Areas with heavy rainfall will exceed the sewage capacity and notably cause serious water pollution.

Particularly ın this STEM learning scenario, we will describe our rainwater harvesting engineering steps to solve.

BASIC PROBLEM

Bu görselin boş bir alt özelliği var; dosya ismi: bd7be33d0.jpg
the picture is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)

Daily Life Problem Status :

1-Why is water important for our life?

2-What kind of difficulties would we face without water?

3-What are the water resources?

4-What pollutes the water?

5-Do you want to produce a solution to protect water?

At this stage, brainstorming is done with the students. Moreover, concept maps are prepared. We ask, what are the factors that pollute the water? Additionally, They are asked to make additions both at school and at home.

https://coggle.it/diagram/YaNF-OlLLhN2g4t7/t/-

Bu görselin boş bir alt özelliği var; dosya ismi: ba96cadeb_opt.jpg
the picture is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)

STEP 1-DISCOVERING

Information is given here to students

Mankind supplies its water needs from surface waters and underground water resources. Especially the most important source of fresh water is precipitation. The same amount of precipitation falls on the earth every year. In our country, freshwater resources are quite limited and only sufficient.

They continue their daily lives and unconsciously increase their water use. To realize this increase, it is necessary to understand what a water footprint is.

It is also possible to calculate the water footprint of an individual in his daily life on a small or large scale. This process evaluates how much clean water is wasted and how much water can be saved.

The water footprint of our students is calculated.

Bu görselin boş bir alt özelliği var; dosya ismi: bb68d04d0.jpg
the picture is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)
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the picture is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)

Here are some suggestions for you to save more water:

• Reducing shower time

• Halving textile and food expenditures

• Do not rinse the dishes before putting them in the machine.

• Washing the laundry without prewashing

• Limit your budget for car washes and gas

• Do not leave the tap open

• Paying attention to the efficient use of water resources as well as other resources such as electricity and natural gas.

• Avoiding actions that cause water pollution

• Setting realistic goals with family members to reduce your monthly water consumption

Also, we promised to reduce our water footprint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwfOr6O_73A
the video is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)

Furthermore, We also gave responsibility to our parents.
Moreover, They will calculate the water footprint.

https://youtu.be/-H3hduaMCqc
the video is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)

https://youtu.be/Oq9ZbZs-mEo
the video is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)

Parents have also promised to reduce their water footprint.

STEP 2-DEEPENING

Alice is 8 years old. He has dry days in the city where he lives. Moreover, their water resources are rapidly decreasing. Alice and her family have difficulties in finding water for drinking and cleaning as they suffer from frequent water shortages. In addition, the city where Alice lives can no longer produce as much from agricultural lands as it used to, as problems begin to occur in the irrigation of agricultural lands. On the way to and from school, Alice sees the wooded areas on the way she passed are rapidly decreasing. It doesn’t rain as much as before where they live. Trying to understand the reason for all this, Alice shares her observations with her family, friends, and teacher. They begin to discover how we can use the water we have more efficiently and how we can recover our water through recycling.

***In STEM scenarios, we like to tell the problems with a story.
It is always useful to establish a relationship between a real-life problem and the course content, to turn theoretical knowledge into practice, and to direct our students to research questioning and productivity

Information is given about collecting rainwater in our house. Moreover, a video about the subject is watched.

Bu görselin boş bir alt özelliği var; dosya ismi: bf8ef5ed0.jpg
the picture is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)

STEP 3- ENGINEERING OF THE ROOF HARVEST FROM RAINWATER

    ACTIVITY:

Afterward, students are divided into groups according to the results of their research and their interests.

  • 1.Group Recycling and harvesting of water used in the kitchen.
  • 2.Group Recovery and harvesting of rain water.
  • decides to work on the use of recycled water in agriculture, cleaning, etc.

 EXPERIMENTAL MATERIALS:

Cardboard box

Straws

waste plastic cans and bottles

paper cups

adhesive tape,

silicone gun

rope,

cardboard,backdrop cardboard,crafts paper, filter paper.

the picture is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)
the picture is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)

STEP 4- EVALUATION

Each group shares the engineering design with the other groups and their teachers. Students have the opportunity to examine products designed by other groups. The aim here is to enable students to evaluate their products by comparing them with other products. The spokesperson of the group briefly explains the product in class. If the school conditions are suitable, the prepared products are exhibited and shared with other students and teachers in the school. We were able to hold our school exhibition. It was really amazing.

Students Yaman, Umut, and Rüzgar explains the engineering of rainwater roof harvesting.

Yaman,Umut,Rüzgar tasarımlarını anlatıyor – YouTube the video is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)

Student Deniz explains the engineering of rainwater roof harvesting.

Presentation Rainwater harvest – YouTube the video is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)

Student Rüzgar explains the engineering of rainwater roof harvesting.

https://youtube.com/shorts/4kCw6ZVMjOU

Student Çınar explains the engineering of rainwater roof harvesting.

Presentation Rainwater harvest – YouTube the video is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)

Student Berke explains the engineering of rainwater roof harvesting.

https://youtu.be/344SefA6oYo
the video is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)

Student Ece Naz explains the engineering of rainwater roof harvesting.

https://youtu.be/b7UQH4xe_cM
the video is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)

Student Umut explains the engineering of rainwater roof harvesting.

https://youtu.be/EemsobWuONM
the video is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)

Student Zekeriya explains the engineering of rainwater roof harvesting.

Nature Based City with Steam of Green Hearts Projects – YouTube the video is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)

OUR PROJECT EXHIBITION

https://youtu.be/gqrjPp5SG00
the video is the author’s own – ( Attribution CC-BY)

A MIXTURE OF STEM AND THEOLOGY

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Organizer: prof. Codreanu Estera

Because the theme for this year is STEM FOR ALL, I thought: if it is for ALL, let’s mix it everywhere. So, I made an experiment: I brought together STEM and THEOLOGY. It may seem weird for some, but I think these two areas can meet in beautiful activities.

To believe in God we need faith. Sometimes, in science too we need faith in order to create or to discover new things. Every man of science sees far beyond the others. In his imagination impossible things are possible and in his work, impossible ideas become reality. Science, imagination, creativity and faith work together in solving problems and bringing new things in creation.

So I had this brilliant idea to start with a biblical story and around it to do STEM/STEAM activities: experiments, puzzles, mazes, math activities, art activities, scientific activities, etc. The activity was a project-like activity in the span of more weeks, between February until the end of April. It took place at the Tandarica Kindergarten from Suceava, involving preschoolers, aged 5-6 years, also their parents and a few teachers. Here are just a few topics that we approached. At the end of each one I will put some links of the resources that I used and inspired me.

The story of creation

Starting from the story of creation, the children studied topics like earth, stars, Sun, Moon, Solar System, planets, comets, asteroids, the formation of day and night, etc. They listened and watched episodes with Paxi from ESA, Power Point presentations, educational movies with scientific explanations. Then, they made all kinds of representations of all these by drawing them, painting, clay modelling, crafts, practical works, experiments, mazes, math exercises, etc. https://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2009/05/lunar-landing.html, https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/fizzing-moon-rocks-activity/, https://www.esa.int/kids/en/Multimedia/Paxi_animations/Romanian/Sistemul_Solar

The story of Noah

From the story of Noah, with the flood and the rainbow, we took for study the water, its properties, its benefits and its dangers. The children learnt about the water cycle in nature, about the formation of the rainbow, about the white light, the prism, the reverse rainbow (Newton’s Disc), refraction, dispersion and reflection. The kids listened and watched educational clips, PowerPoint presentations, scientific explanations and they made experiments. https://www.esa.int/kids/en/Multimedia/Paxi_animations/Romanian/Circuitul_apei_in_natura, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yVbdcTxp1E&ab_channel=PitiClic, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIdE-pqYqbs&ab_channel=KITCHENSCIENCELAB, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCPPLhPTAIk&t=110s&ab_channel=PeekabooKidz

The story of Nicodemus

One day Nicodemus comes to Jesus to find out more about God. Then Jesus explains him that God is Spirit and assembles Him with the wind. We cannot see God, but we feel Him, we see His work and His answers to our prayers. In the same way, we cannot see the air or the wind, but we see its effects, we feel it. So, we (me and my preschool students) decide to learn more about air and wind.

First, the children tried to “see” the wind or the air. So, they could “see” it when they blew a feather or a balloon, when they turn the sheets of the book with the help of a fan, when they span a pinwheel. They “saw” the wind in the moving branches of the trees around them or in the fly of their kite. Running with the kite was a great opportunity to learn a little about aerodynamics. They learnt about the four forces of flight: Lift, Weight, Drag, and Thrust and the gravitational attraction. Searching the right direction of the air motion was a challenge for them. The little investigators also learned about the power of the wind, it benefits, like windfarms that help us to have nonpolluting and sustainable energy, but also the risks, like the windstorms/tornados. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXP1GkN8TV4&t=11s&ab_channel=JanguKids, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkjz44-aa14&ab_channel=DigiNurture

The Lord’s Supper story

In this story, Jesus is taking the last supper together with his disciples. He teaches them to celebrate this moment over the years, drinking wine and eating bread. This two are the symbols of his blood and body, in order to remember his death and sufferings.

So, we found in this an opportunity to study the human blood, a very interesting activity. First, they watched a scientific explanation about the composition of the blood and the importance of each component. They retained in their mind four components. Plasma helps the blood move through veins and arteries. Red blood cells carry oxygen. White blood cells fight germs, bacteria, and viruses. Platelets help heal cuts. We reconstructed the red and white cells in a nice sensory activity that the children enjoyed very much. In a large plastic container we put water, red water beads and white ping-pong balls. While they explored the “blood”, playing with it, they talked about its parts.

We didn’t talk only about the blood, but also about the hole human body, its parts, external and internal organs. They watched scientific presentations, studied anatomy books and encyclopedia and they made practical representations of different aspects that they learnt.

Regarding the wine and the bread, we reached notions of chemistry literacy like good microbes, single celled organisms, fungus, yeast, Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, fermentation, alcohol and Carbon Dioxide, gluten, etc. We also watched scientific presentations and explanations from the internet. We made bread and an experiment with a balloon to demonstrate how yeast works and what happens along the process.  https://www.icanteachmychild.com/what-is-blood-made-of/, https://youtu.be/weLTJXViTQ0, https://youtu.be/qrE6Y0Se8bw

The Easter story

The Easter story is not about the eggs of course. It is about Lord Jesus’ resurrection. The children watched and listened educational movies and PowerPoint presentations in order to establish the true meaning of the Easter. But after that, we found in the custom of painting eggs a great opportunity to try some experiments with eggs.

Along these experiments the kids could tell the difference between a boiled egg and a fresh one just by spinning them. They observed that the egg is not floating in the water, but they found out that they can make an egg float, by adding salt in the glass. Introducing an egg in a bottle was another fantastic challenge for them. Finally, they made a jumping ball from an egg by keeping the egg in vinegar for two days in order to “melt” the eggshell. During this experiment, they observed how the egg became bigger and translucent so that they could see the egg yolk inside. They also could feel the egg that became like a rubber ball and played with it, because it could jump. https://youtu.be/errqz-UeSA8, https://youtu.be/mkVMxxGloVE

The preschoolers were very enthusiastic about these themes and especially the experiments. I usually let them to do the activities by themselves: I tell them what to do, but I let them to work and they are very interested and curious to discover by themselves what is happening. They have to say first their opinion, what they think is going to happen, then I let them to experiment and to draw the conclusions. 

I involved not only the preschoolers, but also their parents. They too were very pleased and excited about the activities. When we were doing these activities at the kindergarten, the children who couldn’t come, asked to send them indications and resources to do them at their homes. Also, during the stem discovery week, in Romania the children had vacation and they were at home. But they were fully involved and I had the total approve and support from their parents. Actually, it was really exciting to do stem activities at their homes despite the vacation.

Due to all these activities, children used and improved their skills in critical thinking and problem solving, they collaborated with each other, they used and developed their creativity. Also, the themes approached were relevant for them, the activities started from real life topics and situations. They ended with answers for their questions, with “wows” and even more curiosity.

Finally, you can find more pictures and videos here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1624845234575087

CAUSE IF IT IS STEM FOR ALL, IT IS SURELY STEM FOR US TOO   

Nature’s S.T.E.A.M. ”School Crane Sorting Metal Waste”

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Class: Kindergarten
Unit-Subject: WE FIND METALS HIDDEN BETWEEN THE WASTE WITH THE HELP OF MAGNETIC FIELD (Magnet ).
Recommended Time: 25×5 minutes

The aim of our project is to raise a new generation that protects our nature. While doing this, it is to use natural resources correctly and to find solutions to daily life problems with STEM skills. To use natural resources correctly and to find solutions to daily life problems with STEM skills. By separating the wastes as metal, plastic and wood with a magnetic separator crane, we have provided the construction of a crane that saves the nature.
– Child and nature education
Pollution of nature, felling of trees and fires, conscious consumer society, reduction of plastic use, ecological literacy
– Facilitating students’ learning with the use of technology
-Our goal is to develop students’ cognitive, psycho-motor, language, self-care, social-emotional skills through workshops.

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Problem Statement: In order for waste to be recycled, it must be properly separated. Glass waste should be together, plastics should be together, metal waste should be together. Sometimes this may not be possible. All wastes can be found in a mixed state. In such cases, can we easily separate metal wastes from other wastes? How can we separate the waste down to the smallest piece of metal?
Engage: The teacher asks the children to bring Newton-related images, paper clips and magnets to the class. A center of interest is created with all the materials brought. The teacher draws the attention of the children to the center of interest. They review the materials that come with the children. The teacher took a pencil and asked, “What will happen if I put down this pencil?” she asks. After the answers received, she puts down the pen. Observing the pencil falling to the ground, “Why do you think the pencil falls to the ground? The question is asked. Ask the children to guess. One day, while Newton was sitting in the shade of an apple tree, an apple fell on his head. “I found it!” he shouts. Well, what do you think he might have found?” Their ideas are taken.

Course Flow:

By examining the pictures about Newton and painting the images, it is talked about that he made many discoveries in the fields of mathematics and physics.

Magnet attracts metals to itself
Pulls, pulls. None of them can escape.
The magnet immediately finds the metals
Pulls, pulls. None can escape

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EXPLANATION : A table is placed in an area where children can see it. Paper clips are placed scattered on the table. By moving the magnet under the table, the teacher causes the paper clips to be drawn towards the magnet. “It’s called the law of gravity.” All children are allowed to move the magnet.

We used the project-based learning method GEMS training model.

DEEPENING: Damages caused by wastes to the environment; air pollution, global warming, groundwater pollution, damage to vegetation, fire and explosions. How can we create a design that can easily separate metals from other wastes by taking advantage of the magnetic field effect?
Learning by design model and project based learning method are applied .
The prepared setup is exhibited and each group presents the design to the other groups.

TECHNOLOGY
https://wordwall.net/en/resource/9156487/m%C4%B1knat%C4%B1s (Game)

EXPLORE: Children are told that they are going to play a game to defy gravity. The necessary materials for the game (two tennis balls, two hair dryers, four plastic plates) are prepared. Chairs are placed at the start and end points. Plastic plates are placed on the chairs and tennis balls are placed in the plates at the starting point. Two volunteer students are selected and asked to proceed to the starting point. By starting the machine with the start command, the students are made to turn their mouth upwards and leave the ball towards the air flow in a way that comes to the mouth of the machine. Thus, the ping pong ball stays in the air by itself against gravity. The child who gets the ball into the plate at the finish point without dropping it wins the game. The game continues until all children have played.

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Zero waste : We built a crane that collects metal waste

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Nature’s Steam School Our Collaborative Work:Crana orting Metal Waste – YouTube

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melek stem discovery blog – YouTube

EVALUATION: Afterwards, each group evaluates the design prepared by the other groups. For this, he creates a rubric suitable for each class work and problem situation.
Are the magnets large enough to separate metals? (5 points)
Are the materials you use in your design solid? (5 points)
How original are the materials you use in your design? (5 points)

Author: Scientix Ambassador Gülsüm Atile Hakkı Tatoğlu, Primary School Antalya Turkey

Project Team:

  • Stanislawa Stepien Kielce, Poland Przedszkole Samorządowe nr 18 w Kielcach
  • Dilek Yıldırım Petek Aksu İlkokulu Türkiye
  • Gülsüm Şık Göçgen SERİK DR.GÜLŞEN-DR.BAKİ ÖZPINAR İLKOKULU
  • Andrea Izabela Botos CAREI, RomaniaLICEUL TEORETIC CAREI
  • Fatma Öz Manavgat Anaokulu Türkiye
  • Melek Çılgın Mustafa Şimşek Anaokulu Muratpaşa/ Türkiye
  • Ewelina Koziol Kielce, Poland Przedszkole Samorządowe nr 18 w Kielcach
  • Joana Leitão Montijo, Portugal Agrupamento de Escolas de Montijo
  • Hülya Çevik Değirmendere İlkokulu Alanya Türkiye
  • Ola Navara Przedszkole z Oddziałami Integracyjnymi w Koziegłowach Koziegłowy, Poland
  • Semran Kaya Alper Duru Anaokulu Konyaaltı Türkiye
  • Zeliha Alaç Hayme Hatun Anaokulu Manavgat
  • Özlem Esen Yılmaz Sugözü Cemal Coşkun Ortaokulu Alanya Türkiye
  • Ülfet Öncel Hanım Ömer Çağıran İlkokulu Muratpaşa/ Antalya

Sweety STEAM Project – Chocolate Challenge

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This activity is part of the Etwinning Project “Sweety STEAM”. The Project is carried out in partnership of 13 teachers from different countries. Throughout the project, we carried out monthly activities. The February activity is mainly organised for the STEM Discovery Challenge using the Scientix Repository Resource “The Chocolate Challenge. Quantitative sensory evaluation of food”. Here, in this blog, we want to tell about our project “Sweety STEAM”, and also the resource we selected from Scientix Resource Repository.

Authors : Zeynep Kalıncı & Fatma Uludağ

Student Age: 10 – 13

Subjects : Literature, English as a Foreign Language, Arts, Science, Mathemathics

Partner Schools

  1. Zeynep Kalıncı – Ahmet Taner Kışlalı Secondary School (TURKIYE)
  2. Fatma Uludağ- Şahinde Hayrettin Yavuz Science And Art Center (TURKIYE )
  3. Manuela Ortigão -Escola Secundária de Gondomar -(PORTUGAL)
  4. Elbi Yordam -Selimiye Secondary School (TURKIYE)
  5. Elif Fergane- Hürriyet Secondary School (TURKIYE)
  6. Mehtap Öz- Prof. Dr. Şaban Teoman Duralı Science and Arts Centre (TURKIYE)
  7. Dilek Sevinç -Kilis Science and Art Center (TURKIYE)
  8. Danijela  Erceg – Primary School Manuš,Split (CORATIA)
  9. Bekir Bora Atalay – Şehit Fatih Sultan Karaaslan Anatolian I. Hatip (TURKIYE)
  10. Pınar Emre Arslan – Konak Science and Arts Center (TURKIYE)
  11. Murat Şahin -Fethiye Science and Art Centre (TURKIYE)
  12. Yeliz Güdül -700. Yıl Osmangazi Secondary School
  13. Slađana Boričić – OŠ”Dr Arčibald Rajs”- (SERBIA)

Objectives:

  • Improve students interest in STE(A)M subjects (science, technology, engineering, math )
  • Develop students problem solving skills
  • Develop students literacy skills
  • Improve students foreign language skills (listening / writing)
  • Improve students science skills (4 basic tastes, melting and freezing, graphic interpretation)
  • Improve students art skills
  • To create an enjoyable learning environment at school
  • Integrate STEM and literacy to give students the confidence to explore STEM topic
Author’s own image

Abstract: At the beginning of this project students read a fantasy novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which is one of the best selling childrens’ books. Following the reading activity, students fulfilled a series of STE(A)M challenges integrated with literature because we wanted to arouse the curiosity of children and to create an opportunity to develop students interest in STE(A)M education.

Project Activities

First Month Activities

First, children read the novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Secondly, we applied the Book Review Kit at the British Council Public Website. Students did listening and matching activity under the preparation part in the page and then applied the Worksheet for the writing activity.

Lastly, students did a reading and drawing activity. They depicted what happened in the novel or a particular scene. We used the best student drawings from each partner and we created a common art magazine. Click on the link below to see our collaborative work.

Art Magazine

Second Month Activities

At the beginning of the activity we asked the students: Would you like to open your own chocolate factory like Willy Wonka? Following that, the students learned how to make chocolate. During this activity, the students experienced solid-melt-solid.

Author’s own image

Further, we carried out a student discussion using some questions. For instance:

Question 1

Discuss what temperature does chocolate melt at? (Answers received: average 32-34 degrees C, a little bit lower than your body temperature, that’s why it can melt in your mouth)

What factors cause a chocolate melt or become solid? 

Question 2

Tasting chocolate – How does chocolate taste? 

Students gave answers and talked about 4 basic tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter). After that, students explored the tongue map, so they learned how different parts of the tongue have different sensory receptors for different tastes.

Author’s own image

Question 3

Discuss if melting and freezing a physical or chemical change.

Afterwards, students examined the graphic below and answered: ‘What can be interpreted from the data?’

Author’s own image

Students used twinspace forums, so that they could note down their answers. In this way, they could see each others’ answers. Web 2.0 tools, such as Padlet, can be used for the same purpose.

Finally, we joined the STEM Discovery Campaign Challenge. Thanks to the Scientix Resource Repository, we found and selected an enjoyable resource that matches our project theme, titled “Chocolate Challenge”. Here is the link for this resource: Chocolate Challenge

Author’s own image.

As a result, we could manage to complete a series of activities in an interdisciplinary way around the same theme. Moreover, we had the opportunity to embed Scientix in Etwinning Projects. It was a great experience for all partners because ‘STEAM has never been so sweet!’

Meet a Phylogenetic Plant Ecologist Researcher

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Many times, when STEM professionals go back to school in order to share their professional experience, they focus on the characteristics of their work, their everyday routine or the skills they have learned to carry out their work. But, it is also really important to know the impact of their profession on our daily lives. In many cases, it’ s easy to understand, although sometimes it is worth making an effort to explain it. For example, STEM professionals who are involved in scientific research.

The students of IES Blas Infante in Cordoba, Spain, have had the opportunity to hear the experience of Rafael Molina, Biology PhD.

The activity with this STEM professional have been planed for 4th year secondary school students. These pupils are between 15 and 16 years old and they have to choose an educational itinerary for the last two years of secondary education. So this activity has been organised as part of the academic orientation plan to show them STEM careers.

Rafael Molina explained the importance of knowing the evolution of the vegetal species and the characteristic ecosystem of each area around the world and their relationship with human well-being. But he also shared his professional experience from a different point of view, although shared with many other STEM careers: scientific research. Many of our students don’t know what research work exactly is and how important it is for our society to generate scientific knowledge in all fields of study.

For this reason, Rafael shared his professional experience and explained the importance of keeping the research process alive. He told us about a work in the field of Biology that was carried out in the 1960s analysing a group of bacteria living in hot thermal waters of the Yellowstone Natural Park. With this example, he showed us that, although in those years this study may not have had much importance, later it would be of considerable help to everyone. Even if it were carried out now, we might think that it is something that is not very important. But on the other hand, he explained the importance that the development of this study had for the development of something that all students are familiar with today: PCR tests for the detection of COVID-19.

This made us understand that the importance of carrying out scientific research work does not mean that a great discovery will be made at that moment, but to contribute to the necessary and constant generation of scientific knowledge, which is what has always helped the development of our society. Likewise, keeping this knowledge and making society understand that everything is based on scientific evidence helps to avoid the fake news that generates so much controversy in our society. He explained what scientific publications are, what they are based on and what a publication process is like, trying to make it clear that it is necessary to check the information and always use reliable sources.

More information about his research: https://rafmolven.wixsite.com/rafmolven/about-me