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Xperimania science competition for schools starts: explore the properties of every day objects

To help teachers make science lessons more fun and interesting, Xperimania (www.xperimania.net), now in its second year, will concentrate on the properties of familiar objects and how chemistry contributes to them. Xperimania is for 10-20 year old students in secondary schools from across Europe, and aims to boost their interest in science, which is a priority for Europe to remain a knowledge-based economy fostering innovation.

The new competition “Check out the property!” asks why certain properties make everyday objects so easy and practical to use. Students are encouraged to learn about chemical and physical properties of everyday objects, the materials that display those properties and their uses in everyday life through easy and fun experiments provided on the Xperimania website. Students are also invited to devise their own hypotheses and experiments and upload their lab reports on the website gallery accompanied by photographs, films or other multimedia sources to illustrate the work.

The deadline for submissions is 30 April 2009. The best entries will be rewarded by attractive prizes: personal media players for the winning students and a prize fund for the schools to spend on scientific classroom resources.

During the school year 2007/08 almost 1000 secondary school students from 18 European countries participated in the activities – Hands on experiments and Timeline of petrochemistry discoveries - provided by Xperimania I. Contributions to these activities are still welcome but will not be evaluated in the competition.

“Exploring and investigating a scientific discovery in the field of materials and developing hands-on experiments remain an attractive challenge for students bearing in mind the motivation Xperimania succeeded to raise among young people last year,” says Pierre de Kettenis, Executive Director of Appe/Cefic Petrochemistry Industry Sector.

The success story of the Xperimania online chats will continue this year. Students will be able to pose their questions directly to industry experts on interesting topics in materials and petrochemistry. Keep an eye on the chat calendar on the Xperimania website for chats in English, French, German and Spanish.

Benefits for students and teachers

Taking part in Xperimania will give students and teachers the chance to:

• Explore and understand the wide variety of materials used in everyday life and the properties which make familiar objects practical and indispensable;
• Increase students’ motivation to explore the world scientifically and make use of easy IT-based tools in producing multimedia resources based on their own research;
• Take part in a fun activity as part of the main school curriculum and raise an interest in studying sciences in a new, inspiring way.

About Xperimania

Xperimania is organised by the Association of Petrochemicals Producers in Europe (Appe), and coordinated by European Schoolnet on their behalf. All schools in the European Union, candidate countries and EFTA countries are invited to join in. Participating students must be aged 10-20 years old. Participation is free. Visit www.xperimania.net and find all the background information and resources needed to get started.

Contact

For further information, please contact:
Ann Whent, Appe
email: awh@cefic.be
Tel. (+32) 02 6767360

Agueda Gras-Velazquez, European Schoolnet
email: agueda.gras@eun.org
Tel.  (+32) 02 790 75 83