In May last year, we reported that a team from Janusz Korczak II General Secondary School in Bolesławiec had won first place in the “Be Entrepreneurial” competition, organised by the Wrocław University of Economics. The team’s final presentation (consisting of: Adrian Fehring-Dworak, Magdalena Broszko, Krystian Fecyk and Marcin Kołodziej — all members of the school’s basic entrepreneurship club, supervised by teacher Dorota Kurowska) had been prepared down to the smallest detail. It concerned the Interactive Science Centre “ScienceLab”.
“I came up with the idea at the beginning of the school year [2012/2013 — editor’s note], and then we worked on it together in April,” Adrian Fehring-Dworak told us at the time. “That was when the final version of the ISC was created. We want to present students from various schools with experiments in natural science subjects, especially physics.”
The Centre was officially opened on 21 January. “The Interactive Science Centre was our students’ idea. I took it up and put it into practice,” said Mirosław Sakowski, headmaster of II LO, during the ceremony.
Among those attending the ceremony was Alicja Krzyszczak, head of the Education, Culture, Physical Culture and Sport Department of the Bolesławiec County Office. “I am a chemist myself, so the natural sciences are very close to me,” she said. “I will encourage these young people to persevere and to remain motivated. Congratulations on the idea; may there be more initiatives like this.”
During the opening, students from II General Secondary School presented several experiments. Middle-school students had the opportunity, among other things, to learn how to prepare ice cubes instantly, without freezing.
The experiments used, among other things, vinegar, raisins, deodorants and potato flour. The county education official asked the secondary-school students what was used to preserve raisins. “They did not know, so I told them it was sulphur dioxide (E220),” Alicja Krzyszczak added. “As consumers, we should buy raisins preserved with natural oil.”
“It is an excellent idea. Many of our students are involved in this project,” emphasises Mariusz Wierzchosławski, physics teacher and supervisor of the Interactive Science Centre “ScienceLab”. “We want to show physics in a more interesting way. We invite teachers and students from all schools to visit our Centre. We hope young people will see physics as something we encounter every day, rather than something known only from textbooks.”
“I am very pleased that the headmaster took our idea seriously,” adds Adrian Fehring-Dworak, originator of the ISC “ScienceLab”. “We want to debunk the myth that science subjects are boring. We want young people to understand that physics is more than a few difficult formulas we learn in class. Once you get to know it better, it turns out to be very interesting and approachable. I hope we will achieve this goal.”
(information: ii)