Cerdanyola del Vallès, 28th June 2022 ALBA Mission closes its 2021-2022 edition, which has counted with 342 registered schools, 534 teachers, 760 classroom groups and more than 15,000 students all around the country.
Students and teachers have highly valued the impact of the project in their classrooms, both at a motivational and learning level. According to the students "challenges are simple but actually, you can learn many complicated things, while having a good time working with classmates". Teachers also approve ALBA Mission for being "a stimulating and motivating way of showing science" that "provides us resources and security when doing experiments at school" and "gives the chance to be in touch with scientists".
Last November, 10-12 years old students faced the scientific challenge proposed by the ALBA Synchrotron: one mission with four stages that schools resolved during all the school-year. Two "mission routes" are available: "Making visible the invisible" or "Discovering the power of light". The first one includes four experiments related with matter, force, energy and light. The second one, more interdisciplinary, offers experiments related with light and its properties: Which role plays light in our vision? How it helps us to know materials properties? How we can use light to create practical solutions to solve daily challenges? Or even, how we can create art through light?
Now, the 5th edition of ALBA Mission is about to start. This science educational project, organised by the ALBA Synchrotron expects 500 teachers being registered again this school-year 2022-2023, totally free. The project is developed online to remove geographical barriers among schools. The educational content included in the project have been specifically designed to work the scientific area gathered in the official curriculum from all different autonomous communities in a practice, significant and experiential manner. Beyond the scientific content as the main axis, the project is presented as transversal and interdisciplinary, with teamwork as one of the main and most important elements.
Students will be performing experiments in their classrooms following the instructions of the Synchrotron team to get the scientific answer, until completing the whole mission. Teams from all over Spain will be trying to solve the mission at the same time. Shirts and videoconferences with the scientists who have encouraged students to experiment are the prizes that will be raffled among the teams that will overcome each stage. In their own words, teachers highlight that carrying out experiments all the schools together at the same time guided by a real research center "makes feel students’ part of something bigger".
Moreover, the mission closes with a live on YouTube where students are able to chat and make questions to the ALBA staff that guided them through the virtual labs during the mission. This final colophon is very well received in order to connect boys and girls with the real world of research and people who makes it possible. In this way, ALBA Mission transmits a closer and positive vision of science removing its stereotypes.
ALBA Mission is available in English, Catalan, Spanish, Basque and Galician. Register for the next school-year will be available at the web of ALBA Mission till 14th October and the new mission will start in November, looking forward enrolling new schools, and at the same time, for enforcing the link with the veteran ones, which have been participating in ALBA Mission since the beginning in 2019.
With the collaboration of Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología. The ALBA Synchrotron is part of the of the Unidades de Cultura Científica y de la Innovación (UCC+i) of the FECYT and has received support through the FCT-20-15798 project.
