Toulouse. The Cité de l’Espace presents the Children’s Scientific Conference

The most important site in Europe in terms of disseminating space and astronomical culture to the general public, the Cité de l’Espace is organizing the thirteenth edition of the Scientific Conference for Children.

Named ESERO (an ESA educational program coordinated in France by CNES and its partners including the Cité de l’espace), this event is the culmination of several months of schoolwork, for 24 French classes, on an original theme: “Imagine your college on Mars”.

For this thirteenth edition, the Cité de l’espace presents a hybrid event, with the first live conference, Friday 10 June 2022, for schools in southwest France and a second conference in digital edition, Friday 17 June 2022, for geographically distant schools. During these two high-profile events, young researchers will participate in their first scientific conference to present and compare their findings with those of their counterparts at the conference.

An educational project called ESERO

The Children’s Science Conference, created in 2009 by the Cité de l’Espace, in partnership with MGEN, aims to introduce students, between the ages of 9 and 12, to the different aspects of the research profession, to promote space culture and to encourage possible scientific careers. In this 13th edition, 24 chapters Episode 3 (CM1-CM2/6ème) worked in pairs from school and college for 8 months, on a unique school project, on a science topic related to space and astronomy. Imagine your school on Mars.

Accompanied by moderators from the Cité de l’Espace or doctoral students from the Federal University of Toulouse, the participating classes received a Martian case containing many of the experiments to be performed in class. Teachers enjoy outstanding support throughout the project.

Thus, since last November, more than 600 students across France have conducted investigative work in class to gain the scientific knowledge needed to understand the Martian environment and especially its limitations. The goal is to overcome them and provide innovative solutions in order to imagine their college on the red planet.

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