– Full box for the meeting between researchers and families
Dedicated to the Earth, the 18e edition of the event delighted young and old. Report Saturday on the Lausanne campus.
Posted today at 7:04 p.m.
1er June at the UNIL Mystères, a workshop on the study of plants captivated children and adults.
FLORIAN CELLA
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BotTalk
“What do you smell?” Taking turns, the participants feel the stem of a tomato plant, before listening attentively to the rest of the explanations from Yifat Quan, doctoral student in the Department of Plant Molecular Biology (DBMV) at the University of Lausanne. “We are simplifying our knowledge so that everyone can understand what we do in the laboratory,” he explains.
With this in mind, this lesson on plants is intended to be fun and based on research results, like the 41 other scientific workshops (indoors and outdoors) which make up the completely free Mystères de l’UNIL offer. Spanning four days, from April 30 to June 2the annual meeting explored a vast and fascinating theme: the Earth.
The goal? Introduce children to science, sharpen their curiosity and why not, encourage vocations. “Our main objective is that young French-speaking audiences have the opportunity to subsequently consider a university course, regardless of their social and economic background,” explains the event manager, Pascale Paschoud. Games and activities complete the content of this 18e editing. And adults are also taken into account: ten new meetings are aimed at them, organized in partnership with “24 Heures”.
The awakening of science
This Saturday, late morning at the University of Lausanne, the excitement can be felt. However, if the Amphimax building is crowded before the start of a conference by the Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard on wonder at the wild part of the world, the atmosphere is one of concentration in one of the rooms of the Amphipole. This workshop on plants is fascinating. This time, DBMV doctoral student Sami Bouziri invites the small group of participants to observe the structure of a plant. “If we succeed in popularizing our words, children begin to have a real interest,” he rejoices.
This is the case for Mattia-David, 9 years old: “What I liked best was the microscope!” Accompanied by his family, this is the first time he discovers The Mysteries of UNIL. “But we have already seen plants and the science of water at school,” adds his little brother Louis-Amiel, 7 years old. “It’s important to make them aware of the different sciences so that they understand what’s around them,” smiles their mother.
A little further on, a workshop allows children to discover the research process. “We want to open this black box of methodology to make it accessible to all”, summarizes Cléolia Sabot, coordinator of Interface (a fund which supports research between members of UNIL and actors in the field) at the origin of this project. An important dimension for a social science researcher? “Of course. Explaining to the general public how research is constructed is fundamental!”
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