Science Outreach

ICIQ is strongly committed with its education and science outreach efforts. As an example of this commitment, through the last six years we have been active in promoting outreach activities and getting Chemistry closer to society.

 

"Familiar Chemistry" - An activity for the little ones


In order to show children a fun way to discover and understand chemistry, we organized an event where visitors themselves are the ones conducting the experiments.
 
"Química en Familia at ICIQ"
On Tuesday 22nd and Thursday 24th more than 100 kids came to the institute to become little scientists. They had the chance to perform different and simple experiments that brought out their curiosity and interest in chemistry. The theme of this year’s ‘Familiar Chemistry’ day was Food Chemistry.
This activity is funded by AGAUR (Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca) and FECYT (Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología).
 
     
 
 
Química en Familia at CaixaForum-Tarragona
A very similar event was run at Caixaforum, at Tarragona city centre, on Saturday 26th. A very successful activity that brought kids and parents closer to the world of chemistry.
 

Contact: Núria Mas (nmas@iciq.es) Tel. 977920200
 

Participation in trade fairs and congresses

Each year ICIQ participates with its own stand in different fairs and science outreach events. Our booth offers information about the center and the research projects we carry our here. People who come to see us can see and do chemical experiments with our researchers' assistance. It is a good opportunity to bring science and research closer to society.

- Saló de l'Ensenyament

- Fira de mostres d'R+D de Tarragona: From November 16th to 18th, we were at Fira d’R+D at Campus Catalunya, Tarragona, together with other research institutions in the Tarragona’s area. This year, the International Year of Chemistry, our stand was dedicated to Marie Curie and her radioactivity studies. We also showed how to measure accurate volumes to all the people who visited our stand. They also had the chance to play with our magnetic Periodic Table.
This activity is funded by AGAUR (Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca)

 
     


- Fira de Recerca en Directe: On 5th, 6th and 7th of April, ICIQ moved to La Pedrera, in Barcelona, to participate in the 9th Fira de Recerca en Direct. We explained to students and general public one of the research projects being carried out at the ICIQ, in Emilio Palomares' research group, in the field of photovoltaic energy. We also showed how to build organic solar cells. It was a good opportunity to explain to society the type of research we do here.

 

- 'Aquí, els nostres invents': During the months of March and April, the Sagrada Familia library in Barcelona is hosting an exhibition of inventions created in Catalonia in the last decade.

Two of the 16 inventions shown at this exhibition belong to ICIQ researchers.
Emilio Palomares presents a Zinc-phthalocyanine-based dye which absorbs radiation easily and can be used in solar cells. The invention presented by Miquel Pericàs is a 'Nanoparticles generator' that can make nanoparticles with an average diameter of 3 nm of Cobalt Oxide. (Article in 'El Periódico')

Guided tours of the ICIQ facilities


During the fourth week of November, various high schools came to the ICIQ to learn more about who we are and what we do here. We organized an interactive tour in which students had to identify a "mysterious" white powder sample. This served as an excuse to explore our laboratories and support areas of research.
This activity is funded by AGAUR (Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca) and FECYT (Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología).
 
      
  


Contacto: Núria Mas (nmas@iciq.es). Tel. 977920200

Teachers and Science and Youth and Science

ICIQ collaborated with these two CatalunyaCaixa's programmes with a workshop by the research group of Prof. Emilio Palomares. The workshop dealt with the basics of organic solar cells and how to build them up.
 
Teachers and Science provides secondary school teachers in Catalonia with the opportunity to participate in specialized courses or workshops conducted by researchers from scientific research centers in Catalonia.

  
 
 
Youth and Science brought together a group of high school students and members of Prof. Emilio Palomares' research group in the Catalan Cerdanya last summer. There, these students had a first contact with the world of research. They lived together, they had fun, they learnt and became scientific researchers during two very enriching weeks.
 
 

CEICS (Campus de Excelencia Internacional Cataluña Sur) Scientific Summer Campus 

Throughout the month of July, students from 4 ESO and 1st year of Bachiller enrolled in different Spanish high-school centres who had excelled in scientific subjects, came to make a short placement at ICIQ. As part of it, they saw and carried out chemical reactions: from the study and performance of a reaction to the analysis of the final product.
The students were integrated into the life of a laboratory researcher who is strongly connected with the pharmaceutical industry. They also participated in the synthesis of a family of compounds with pharmaceutical interest.
 


Festa III Aniversari 'El Club Dels Tarraconins'

On May 8th ICIQ participated in the III Anniversary of  The Tarraconins' club with a stand where we taught children from Tarragona how to play with chemistry in our Science Workshop.
 

 
 

ICIQ visits local schools

On Monday March 5th, two ICIQ researchers visited Pau Delclòs school in Tarragona in order to bring chemistry closer to the students through some simple experiments that helped to understand this science and stimulated their curiosity and interest in chemistry.
 
In total, about 100 children from years 1 and 6 - Primary School enjoyed a morning full of experiments. They built a volcano with vinegar and baking soda, ate ice cream made with liquid nitrogen and played with blandiblu they made in class.


ICIQ would like to thank Montserrat Moreno, Pau Delclòs' school teacher, who was responsible for organizing the activity. We would also like to thank Núria Huguet and Claudia de León, from Antonio Echavarren's research group, for disseminating the chemical sciences in such an entertaining and interesting way.