Skype meetings with schools in Belgium and Spain

Hello!

During the last two weeks, Valentina and Bea had two Skype calls with two different schools in Spain and Belgium. Henri Robert, the scientific manager of the Princess Elizabeth Station had organized both meetings with the students and asked for our participation, as we could speak with them in Spanish and French, respectively, apart from English. The aim of these meetings with the students was:

•  to arise their awareness about the importance of protecting Antarctica and the consequences of the climate change
• how PEA station could be taken an example as it is the first zero emission Antarctic station
• which are the main scientific projects that are participating to BELARE 2019-20
• how is the life in the station .

The first online meeting was done with the Escola Reina Elisenda Virolai, from Barcelona (Spain). Approximately twenty 8-years-old kids with their teachers attended it. Each one had prepared a question in English that they asked to Henri or Bea. They were interested in many different aspects, such as which animals can be seen in this region; how is the daily life in the station; how do we move from one site to another; what is the origin of the energy used here; how is the waste water treatment or how do we spend our free time here. They were very excited and motivated to have this contact with researchers from Antarctica. All of them said they would like to become scientists and work here. Also, after pointing out that more women are needed to come and work in Antarctica, as at the PEA station they are just 4 of the 37 people working here, all the girls wanted to participate even more.

The second online meeting was done with the high school “École Montjoie”, from Brussels (Belgium). In this case, they were mainly 17-years-old students, who also prepared a few questions to address to Henri and Valentina. One of the most interesting question they asked was our position concerning climate change. We could then explain what are the main issues that we try to understand.

We think that it is important to make science more accessible to children, as well as the rest of society. However, as Henri pointed out, children are easier to get touched by the importance of taking care of our planet and become very easily passionate about doing science, in this case, in Antarctica. It is also well-known the higher participation of women in research, especially in the first steps of the scientific career (such as PhD students or young postdocs), compared with previous years. However, the low rate of women at the station is a very clear example of the improvements that still need to be done to overcome the gender inequalities in science. Motivating young girls to choose a scientific or technical career and showing them referent women undertaking this kind of jobs, it is of importance to build a more equal future world.

Therefore, we are very happy to help Henri motivating future generations to protect Antarctica, as well as the whole planet, and overcome gender and other kind of discrimination.

The MICROBIAN team