The University of Vigo is participating for the ninth consecutive year in a new edition of the Summer Scientific Campuses – Campus do Mar 2019, a program aimed at students in 4th year of ESO and 1st year of Baccalaureate with an excellent academic curriculum who, over the course of a whole week, will be given the opportunity to work in direct contact with the professional reality of university researchers, so that their experiences will help them define the studies they will have to choose in just a couple of years. Above all, it is about reinforcing in them a taste for science and encouraging scientific vocations.
From this Monday until next July 27, a total of 120 students will participate in this campus, divided into four shifts of 30 students. In each shift, the participants are divided into each scientific approach project (seven or eight students per project) on which they will work throughout the week and on the last day they will make a public presentation of the results obtained to the rest of their classmates and teachers. The activities started this Monday in room 1 of the Miralles building with the welcome of the rector, Manuel Reigosa, who was very pleased that they had chosen Campus do Mar to make their first foray into research and university knowledge topics. “Most of you have a very scientific profile and we hope that these days here will serve you to define your vocation a little better and that it will be easier for you to choose a degree”, the rector emphasized.
Divided into four scientific projects created specifically for them
After the explanations of the campus coordinator and the completion of a short initial knowledge assessment test -completely anonymous-, each group went to their respective workplaces for the coming days, depending on which of the four scientific projects that Campus do Mar had designed for them they had chosen. Those who chose the project Seabeds: who lives there? went to the Marine Sciences Station, Ecimat, in Toralla, where throughout the week they will participate in a simplified version of an oceanographic research campaign focused on the study of relevant topics in the field of marine ecology such as benthic communities.
The rest of the workshops are: They invade us, and now what?, about the consequences of invasive species in coastal ecosystems and global change; And you, who are you?, aimed at introducing students to the use of common techniques in a molecular genetics laboratory and to applying these methodologies within a real context of studying biodiversity, and A beach much more than sand and water, in which through the sediments they collect on a beach they will try to get closer to its history and characteristics to try to better understand their relationship with coastal dynamics.
These activities were led by scientific and technical staff from the Marine Research Center of the University of Vigo and were co-financed by the Xunta de Galicia and the European Union, through their co-financing under the FEDER/FSE Galicia 2014-2020 Operational Program.
Laboratory, field trips, visits…
In the mornings, students will combine laboratory work on their respective projects with field trips to collect samples and, in the afternoon, they will have the opportunity to attend different sports and leisure activities, including a surfing baptism on Patos beach, in Nigrán, with visits to different places of interest such as the Galician Sea Museum, Port of Vigo, etc.
Following the positive reviews of past editions, this summer will also see the repetition of the experience of holding a communication workshop taught by staff from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication, which will help them create and execute presentations of projects and work in a more effective way. In addition, these works will also be guided by a team of teachers from the Faculty of Education and Sport Sciences on the Pontevedra campus, as the objective is to help participants develop their communication and dissemination skills by transmitting the knowledge acquired during their stay in Vigo.
Andalusia and Madrid, main places of origin
The Summer Science Campuses are jointly organized by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, a public foundation dependent on the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. In total, there are 13 participating campuses of excellence throughout Spain, with more than 1500 students enrolled, two of them in Galicia: Do Mar, at UVigo, and Vida, at the University of Santiago de Compostela.
Dos 120 estudantes que este ano visitarán Vigo, arredor dun 70% son mozas e o 30% restantes mozos. Por comunidades de procedencia destacan Andalucía (con 22 estudantes), Madrid (20), Castela León (17) e a Comunidade Valenciana (14), se ben a listaxe inclúen tamén lugares como Canarias, Asturias, Aragón, Murcia, País Vasco, Baleares, Aragón, Castela A Mancha, Estremadura ou a propia Galicia, de onde proveñen oito destes estudantes.
