EXPOSCIENCES EN OCCITANIE
A DECLARATION OF WAR ON BACTERIA
On June 4 and 5, 2021, Exposcience Occitanie was held virtually in Toulouse, France. It hosted 4 winners of the national Jonk Fuerscher competition via an online platform to present their individual projects.
The Fondation Jeunes Scientifiques Luxembourg (FJSL) was represented by Théophile de Moncuit (12) from the European School I, Marieke Corthouts (16) and Amelia Hatch (16) both from the International School of Luxembourg, and Luiza Andrade (18) from the Lycée Michel Lucius. During the national Jonk Fuerscher contest 2021, an extracurricular competition that encourages young people to create a science project, the four young people received the Mobisciences France prize and thus, had the opportunity to present the following projects:
Kidado Sciences: Théophile’s project is a web application whose objective is to make science accessible to everyone and particularly to children and teenagers.
Which public surfaces contain the highest bacteria content?: Amelia and Marieke have compared bacteria samples from different surfaces in public malls to answer the question: Which public surfaces contain the highest bacteria content?
Bacterial resistance to ampicillin and growth rate of Escherichia Coli: The aim of Luiza’s investigation was to find out whether the bacterial resistance to ampicillin can impact how bacteria adapt to different temperatures, comparing bacteria colonies exposed to antibiotics and non-exposed.
top left to right: Luiza & Marieke
bottom left to right: Théophile & Amelia
In addition to the participants’ presentations, the event offered scientific and fun activities such as the “Meet & Talk Science” gathering between participants, scientific quizzes and intercultural games, virtual workshops on math or biodiversity, as well as virtual visits to local exhibitions, laboratories and a radio station.
“I found the experience unforgettable and I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity. I think they did a great job by organizing the online platforms and the live stream”, so Luiza.
The Exposcience Occitanie is an exhibition of science, technology and environmental projects for young people aged 5 to 25, organised by Cirasti (Collectif Interassociatif pour la Réalisation d’Activités Scientifiques, Techniques et Internationales) - a partner of the Mobisciences programme, led by the FJSL and supported by the European Commission (Anefore agency). This programme was launched in 2018 and brings together partner organisations from France, Spain, Belgium and Morocco, all with the objective of contributing to the development of scientific culture among young people aged 12 to 25 through these activities. Watch the full live stream of the presentations: https://youtu.be/1rCb4z5zrWE