How to start?
Researchers’ Night initiative in Europe started in 2005. The project was launched first by the European Commission as a Europe-wide educational festival, and repeated annually on the last fourth Friday of September.
Since 2006 Hungary has also joined the program with different colorful activities organised in many educational and research places of the country.
Aim of the event
The main aim of the festival is to increase the popularity of natural sciences and techniques, to motivate students especially at the age of 10-18 year, who are about to select different options to continue their study and build their career.
The event is organised from the afternoon into the night, and higher education institutions, research institutions, research groups and R&D laboratories offered scientific and educational programs for students and for the audience from age of 3 to over 100.
Researchers’ Night programs have been varying from the night lab visits, lectures, experiments, discussions, interactive games, exhibitions, workshops, theater performances and concerts, night sky study and outdoor obstacle courses. All programs were free for the audience, and many of them did not require previous registration. See in Hungarian: http://www.kutatokejszakaja.hu/2014/
The great success of the event is well demonstrated by the increased attendance of the event over the 8 years (See in Hungarian: http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kutat%C3%B3k_%C3%89jszak%C3%A1ja
First Guinness record success in 2013
Another success of the Researchers’ Night initiative dates back to 2013, when one of the Hungarian enthusiastic teams made a Guinness record by constructing an “electrical power station” using 350 kg of lemon. This success is one of the unique activities organised during the event.
Unique activity: “Following Teacher Öveges footsteps”
Every year since 2012, during the Researchers’ Night, Beata Jarosievitz Dr. and Csaba Sükösd Dr. organize a unique event, which is called “Öveges Tanár Úr nyomában” (Following Teacher Öveges footsteps) on behalf of the Roland Eötvös Physical Society.
Teacher Öveges was a well-known physics teacher in Hungary in the 50’s-70’s, who disseminated physics knowledge in the Hungarian TV with very simple experiment.
This event is hosted at the R&D Center of Ericsson Hungary, at the Science Park of Budapest (See: http://www.ericsson.hu/videos/researchers-night-2014 )
We are grateful to Ericsson Hungary for offering this unique possibility in their highly recognised campus to attract and “infect” the young generation with Physics and Science.
How this event looks like?
This event starts at early afternoon, when students and their parents and/or teachers from primary and secondary schools are also able to attend the programs. Students coming to this event are also invited to use their knowledge, initiative, mind, and to be partners during each 25 minutes presentation, performed by the previously selected Physics teachers.
The selected “authors”, teachers are the best, well recognized teachers from our country, usually previously recognized already their work by the Ericsson Hungary company with a prestigious award, called Ericsson Prize for teachers (About the prize see in Hungarian: http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ericsson-d%C3%ADj). During the event the teachers’ role is to make more and more attractive performances, shows, experiments, together with the audience who join their presentation. All their show can also be followed via online broadcast. The archive created about the presentations can also be used by the teachers as a good educational resource in education.
Which are the best presentations?
All of them are amazing, which attracts the kids’ and students’ attention. From the shared photos the atmosphere and feeling can be seen what we had during the event: it was really a wonderful night!
We also made a suggestion to Ericsson Hungary to try to set another Guinness record (see the video: http://www.ericsson.hu/videos/ericsson-guinness-music-record-attempt) which works on physics principles (acoustics), and which involves many young people. Hip-hop band Punnany Massif and its audience succeeded to break a Guinness record at their concert in Budapest during that night, when 4,000 people played Beethoven’s Ode to Joy together on plastic tubes.
Many people in the country followed this event via live television broadcast, and audiences in other cities and towns also joined it via video link. State secretary in charge of higher education László Palkovics attended the event to authenticate the record.
The interviews given during the event can also be seen from the archives of the Duna TV: http://nava.hu/id/1986978/
I am confident that similar events can strongly influence and motivate the young generation, and will change their attitude towards science in a positive way.
Article written by: Beata Jarosievitz Dr., Scientix Ambassdor