Tuesday, April 10, 2007

As you know, or maybe even remember from your youth memories, science for schoolchildren can be either very exciting or mind-numbing experience. Most of it depends of the techniques teachers use, so if teachers' only means of enriching the minds of little ones comes in the form of books, and not hands-on experience, then there is nothing to talk about here. However, some Centers, such as The University of York's Centre for Novel Agricultural Products, offer a brilliant alternative. This is a science outreach project that focuses on the wonder of the microscopic world. Before that only schoolchildren in Britain were lucky enough to have access to this program in the past, but luckily organizers decided to take it continental. And, so the first stop was The British School in the Netherlands. The selected in Netherlands school will take part in two different workshops: one is based on science, where children will experience science through microscopes, and the other is based on arts, where children will work with a local artist to use art to express what they see through a stereo microscope. And what is even more interesting, parents also get involved in this project, as they attend after school activities with their children. For sure, the amount that can be learnt through practical hands-on experience can't be underestimated.