The project is growing with the addition of Park Güell, where 5th and 6th year primary school students will learn about architecture and technology through Gaudí's works
Zoo de Barcelona, the Anella Olímpica, Parc del Fòrum and Tibidabo Amusement Park are other iconic spaces managed by BSM which will become large-scale science and technology laboratories
The goal is to promote science and technology vocations, especially among girls, through workshops and activities based on the STEAM methodology
Discover new secrets about biology and nature at Zoo de Barcelona, learn more about physics at Tibidabo and perform science and technology experiments at the Anella Olímpica and Parc del Fòrum. With the start of the new school year, Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (BSM) and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia - Barcelona Tech (UPC) are launching a new season of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) activities. This is an alliance which, for the seventh year in a row, is helping to promote science and technology vocations among students at every stage of education through workshops and fun activities that are particularly committed to overcoming the gender barriers that still exist in technical and scientific careers. Seven thousand students will benefit from the project in the 2023-2024 school year.
Zoo de Barcelona will be the first venue to host the STEAM activities this year. On 16 November it will host a programme of biology activities through which students in the 1st and 2nd year of compulsory secondary education (ESO in Catalan) will be able to discover different facets of biology and knowledge of nature, an activity that dovetails with the new Zoo Model’s focus on education and awareness-raising.
This year, the new feature of the STEAM programme is Park Güell, which is participating in the project for the first time with a programme of activities designed particularly for children in the 5th and 6th year of primary school, the latest educational stage to join the project. Through a variety of workshops and guided activities, the students will work on several curricular competences in the fields of mathematics, science and technology while discovering the secrets of Gaudí and Modernista architecture. This initiative reaffirms Park Güell and BSM’s commitment by creating new experiences that ensure public enjoyment and educational use of this heritage site.
After that, on 20 March 2024 the programme will head to Parc del Fòrum, which will once again become a large-scale science and technology laboratory for students in their 4th year of ESO and baccalaureate studies, topics that students in the 2nd and 3rd year of ESO will also explore at the Palau Sant Jordi on 16 April.
STEAM activities this school year will end on 8 May 2024 at Tibidabo. The amusement park will host another edition of Fisidabo, a huge physics festival organised in conjunction with the Physical Engineering degree at the UPC’s Higher School of Telecommunications Engineering (ETSEIB), in which students in their 4th year of ESO and baccalaureate studies will put their knowledge into practice by doing experiments on the park's different rides.
In the opinion of the deputy mayor and president of BSM, Laia Bonet, ‘generating talent is one of the goals of Barcelona's bid to become a scientific capital, and that's why it's important for the city to offer initiatives like these STEAM workshops, which enable primary and secondary school students to learn about biology, physics and technology through games and fun activities. Plus, this project proves BSM’s commitment to make the most iconic spaces that the city manages available to citizens, in this case through educational activities targeted at young people from Barcelona and other towns.’
Adriana Farran, director of the Barcelona East School of Engineering (EEBE) at the UPC, noted that ‘it is a pleasure for the EEBE to take part in organising the STEAM workshops, because as a polytechnic, we have a vested interest in encouraging children to take up science and technology. And we believe that one of the best ways to do this is by experimenting, and if it can be outdoors in a dynamic, fun way, so much the better. That is why we offer the organisers two of our best assets: our lecturers, who help to design the activities, and our students, who act as guides in different workshops and should serve as role models for the young participants.’
A total of 6,832 students from 117 schools in Barcelona and other towns and cities participated in the BSM and UPC STEAM activities in the 2022-2023 school year. Any schools that are interested in the upcoming workshops can still register for them on the project website, where they can also see which workshops still have free places.
