We were back again in 2019 for the Fête de la Science at Sorbonne Université! Our dream team doubled in size and our content too.
Together with our popular “Slime corner” we have also included the following sections:
– The lifecycle of a Polymer
– Polymers of the Future
This year, our main goal was to raise public awareness on plastics and polymers. It seems that almost everyone assumes that polymers is equal to plastic, so we made an effort to make sure everyone of our stand visitors left knowing the difference! The age range of the public that takes part in this event is quite large so the main ideas/knowledge we want to convey to those visiting are :
- What is a POLYMER
- Why polymers are useful and important in our society
- How can we help battle the environmental problem caused by plastic (IDENTIFY, RECYCLE & REUSE)
- Why Polymer materials are important for the future
- The different research topics we are working on at the ECP lab
After showing them several examples of natural and synthetic polymers, we had a display showing a polyethylene bag and a biodegradable (polylactic acid-based) bag that were left for 6 months in a mason jar full of soil. Here, the combination of sunlight, humidity and microorganisms present in the soil led to the degradation of the PLA-based bag whilst leaving the polyethylene bag intact!
Like last year, it was an intense three-days filled with hordes of curious kids, teenagers and adults. A great scicomm experience for all the PhDs and postdocs involved.
This year we received 7 sets of classes with a total of 183 students on Friday, with ages between 8-18 yrs. It was great to see that no matter the age, chemistry can be fun and interesting. And as you can see by our assessment surveys, I think we did quite well!
Here are a few of our selected photos from our workshop at the FDS19, can’t wait to see how it will be next year!