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 08.03.2021

The Parc Científic de Barcelona selects the three teams who will vie to defend its challenge in the 2021 Demo Day iFest

Within the iFest Countdown programme, the The Barcelona Science Park has selected the three finalist teams for its challenge “How to promote scientific vocations among young people?”. Only one will be the winner and will compete with the rest of the players to win the award for the best solution of the 2021 iFest at the Demo Day, which will take place on 24 March at the Barcelona Startup Congress.

The pandemic has not stood in the way of either the success of or strong participation by students and educational institutions in the new edition of iFest Countdown, a programme for learning and competition in which players develop prototypes for real challenges that will be showcased and defended at the 2021 Demo Day. Shakers, students and teachers have put a great deal of work into combining and participating in the different methodologies of the programme online.

The Parc Científic de Barcelona greatly values the participation of students in the iFest programme. All the teams that have participated in each challenge have contributed ideas of enormous interest for promoting scientific vocations and have highlighted the need to disseminate science in a way that contributes knowledge through recreational and dynamic activities to be done inside and outside of the classroom. The teams selected are as follows:

“Medio y ambiente” from the Institut Lluïsa Cura. Under the theme “Choose science and you will understand, think green and you will be right”, the main objective of this project is to publicise job opportunities, career pathways and other facets related to the field of environmental sciences, with proposals and ideas such as activities and workshops.

“KADE” from La Salle Reus. This project, which seeks to break with the topic of the difficulty of studying sciences, offers a kit for conducting experiments, as well as follow-up cards and a guide book for teaching the subjects in the classroom in a more dynamic, fun way.

“LUR” from the Col·legi Mare de Déu del Carme. This project is based on the design of a video game that follows the life cycle and delves into the systems of the human body. It gathers knowledge and represents it in a graphical way. The game is aimed at high school students, students in upper and intermediate grades, and university students.

The three teams will compete against each other in a pitch that will take place on 9-10 March. The jury for each challenge will choose a single team that will receive a prize and will participate with the rest of the finalists for each challenge in the Demo Day grand finale, on March 24, to vie for the Catalunya Emprèn award with the best solution of the 2021 iFest.

The Barcelona Science Park’ challenge

Within the framework of the iFest Countdown, the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) launches the challenge “How to promote scientific vocations among young people?”, aimed at students of Catalan education centers. The players will have to develop an activity to encourage scientific vocations in secondary and high school, within the academic curriculum, to carry it out in PCB, or online.

This initiative is part of the Research in Society, a programme launched by the Barcelona Science Park in 2003 to bring science closer to the public at large and encourage vocations among young people. It currently includes over 100 activities in which around 5,000 people participate every year.

The programme has been awarded with the Educational Quality Label from Barcelona’s Pedagogical Co-ordination Council (CCP) set up by the Barcelona Municipal Institute of Education (IMEB), and is supported by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and Culture Institute of the Barcelona City Council (ICUB).

» More information: iFest [+]