University of São Paulo: Knowledge Room promotes science and technology education for young students
A new physical space where high school students interact with teachers and learn about science and technology through experiments of all kinds. This is the Knowledge Room, an initiative of the Physics Institute of São Carlos (IFSC) at USP that will receive, by the end of the year, 1,600 students from 32 schools from 18 cities in the State of São Paulo.
The area located in Room 10 of the Didactic Support Center (CAD), in Area-2 of the USP Campus in São Carlos, has various equipment such as, for example, a Newton pendulum, devices that show the wavelengths of light, radio and television and periodic table. During the visit, students can ask questions about the experiments and also about undergraduate courses offered by USP. The idea is that the project receives, each semester, about five thousand students.
The Room is part of the Vem Saber program , created by Antonio Carlos Hernandes and coordinated by Herbert Alexandre João, both professors at IFSC. Hernandes, who was vice-rector of USP from 2018 to 2021, and João worked with several initiatives aimed at high school students with the objective of informing about the functioning of the University and forms of admission, such as Vem pra USP and the USP Competition of Knowledge (Cuckoo).
“This is the moment to start a movement that takes the activities that are developed on the USP campus in São Carlos beyond the administrative region of our city, thus attracting young high school students from all over the state”, highlighted Hernandes. during the session that marked the beginning of the project. In addition to the participants having the opportunity to experience a full day in the university environment, they will obtain important information about how to enter USP, which courses are available on campus and which are the most popular, and can plan a career.
According to Hernandes, the Knowledge Room was conceived as “a relaxed and youthful space where students can interact with teachers in carrying out scientific experiments, reinforcing what they learn in the classroom and motivating them to study”.
come to know
The Vem Saber project has a partnership between the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) as a way of promoting public education in the city, region and state. “The emergence of this project is very significant, as it has an altruistic mission whose reward is the satisfaction of being able to contribute to the education of society”, emphasizes the director of the IFSC, Osvaldo Novais de Oliveira Junior.
The enrollment for the Vem Saber project is done by the school, through a responsible teacher. Just access this link and click on “schedule participation” in the University for a Day program, where you can choose a date and time for the visit. Groups must have a maximum of 42 people, including teachers who will be responsible for monitoring students.