The Cité de l’espace, in partnership with the Toulouse rectorat, the Université Fédérale de Toulouse, CNES via the ESERO France program and with the support of MGEN, hosted the 13ᵉ Children’s Scientific Congress on Friday, June 10, 2022.
A scientific conference for and by children
Created in 2009 to introduce pupils to the many different aspects of the research profession, promote scientific culture and encourage potential vocations, this event is the culmination of a project that enables pupils aged between 9 and 12 to work in class on a scientific theme linked to space and astronomy. This is the second year that the event has been organized as part of the activities of ESERO France, of which the Cité de l’espace is a partner.
The Science Congress was finally able to welcome the children on site at the Cité de l’Espace, although an online session was held remotely for the more distant students on Friday June 17, 2022. During the school year, 24 Cycle 3 classes from different academies explored the Red Planet to set up their middle school! After several weeks of experimentation and investigation, the students developed innovative solutions to overcome Martian constraints. During the event, they presented their research work to the other students, encouraged by Romain Charles, MEDES-IMPS engineer (Institut Médecine Physiologie Spatiale) at CNES, guest speaker at the event.
Program for the day
The event kicked off with a talk by the guest speaker for the 2022 edition, Romain Charles. Between June 2010 and November 2011, Romain Charles took part in the Russian Mars 500 experimental program, which aimed to simulate a crew’s journey to Mars and back on Earth. The conference was followed by a question-and-answer session with the students.
A presentation session of the students’ productions allowed them to exchange ideas and give their opinions on the work presented. The students presented:
- a maquette of their college taking into account the scientific constraints linked to the planet Mars: for this, the students will have learned to observe, research, and evaluate information, analyze, check their sources, develop their critical thinking, ask questions, find solutions, cultivate their collaboration skills, debate their ideas…
- A charter for communal living at the Martian school: here, the aim is to encourage students to think about living together harmoniously and citizenship.
Young scientists awarded!
The young aspiring researchers then got to see the Perseverance and Zhurong robots dance on the brand-new Martian terrain at Cité de l’espace before setting up their own model there!
Finally, a prize was awarded to each class to congratulate the students on their involvement and research work on Mars: best teamwork, best eco-friendly project, best engineering project, and many other qualities developed by the children, who are worthy of becoming true future scientists and engineers!
To find out more, visit the Congress page.
