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home > Media services > Press releases > Winners of Xperimania recognised in Brussels: girls come out on top in science competition Winners of Xperimania recognised in Brussels: girls come out on top in science competition The winning students of the first Xperimania – from molecules to materials – (www.xperimania.net) competitions were awarded prizes at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Brussels on 16 September 2008. The 10 winners and runners-up coming from Bulgaria, Malta, Hungary, Poland and Cyprus were accompanied by over 60 high-level guests representing the European Institutions, the European Chemical Industry, staff from Cefic and European Schoolnet, and also fellow students and teachers from across Europe. Dr Ralf Kullmann, Appe Chairman, opened the ceremony, followed by Marc Durando, Managing Director European Schoolnet and Pierre de Kettenis, Executive Director Appe who pointed out the importance of Xperimania as a pan-European project promoting science education via fun experiments and topics on materials, petrochemistry and their impact on our daily life.Almost 1000 secondary school students from 18 European countries participated, with 447 submissions in the activities during the school year 2007/08. An international team of teachers made a pre-selection of finalists, while an expert panel selected the overall winners. The winning projects were declared interesting and well-structured, with a close connection to students’ day-to-day life. Before the prize ceremony the winners participated in a guided tour through the world’s most famous Dinosaur Gallery at the Natural Sciences Musuem, and the following day they visited a major petrochemical research centre. A diversity of experiments and historical discoveries The “Choose your experiment” competition encouraged students to design and try out a scientific experiment in the field of materials and petrochemistry. The jury described Kristiana’s and Detelina’s winning work “Polystyrene as a sound isolator” as a “simple but well made experiment, which has relevance to daily life and could have practical use”. Choose your experiment – List of winners Winner: Kristiana A. & Detelina N., Bulgaria : “Polystyrene as a sound isolator” 1st runner-up: Péter H. & Hajna T., Hungary: “Surprise, Investigation and Research in connection with Polyethylene” 2nd runner-up: Xenia C. and Kaiti C., Cyprus : “Greenhouse experiment”. The “Timeline” competition invited students to explore a historical discovery in the field of materials and petrochemistry. Deborah’s winning work described nylon and its use in the textile industry. The presentation was based on personal fieldwork and a visit to a local factory. Timeline of petrochemistry discoveries – List of winners Winner: Deborah F., Malta: “Nylon” 1st runner-up: Mátyás M., Hungary: “Bitumen” 2nd runner-up: Dawid S., Poland: “Petrol additives – antidetonating agents”. In addition, the jury wanted to give two special mentions: Polish Kinga T.’s work on “Bioplastics” was highlighted with the “Special Mention for innovation” and Hungarian Vivien J.’s entry, “Tyre”, was nominated with the “Special Mention for link to daily life”. The finalists’ works showed that the pupils had dedicated a great deal of time and energy to their projects. As Pierre de Kettenis summed up: “I was really fascinated by the diversity and high quality of the entries. The entries are original, creative and pedagogical. They also give an interesting perspective for the future.” The success story of Xperimania will continue this school year. Xperimania II will be launched at the end of September with new activities: “Check out the Property” competition and new, multilingual chats. Interested? Visit the website (www.xperimania.net) or send an email to: xperimania at eun.org Further information of the winners: http://www.xperimania.net/ww/en/pub/xperimania/news/news/xperimania_winners.htm About Xperimania Xperimania is organised by the Association of Petrochemicals Producers in Europe (Appe), and coordinated by European Schoolnet on their behalf. All schools in the European Union, candidate countries and EFTA countries are invited to join in. Participating students must be aged 10-20 years old. It is free to participate. Visit www.xperimania.net and find all the background information and resources needed to get started. Contact For further information and better quality images, please contact: Ann Whent, Appe email: awh at cefic.be Tel. (32) 02 6767360 Agueda Gras- Velazquez, European Schoolnet email: agueda.gras at eun.org Tel. (32) 02 790 75 83 About European Schoolnet European Schoolnet (EUN – www.eun.org) is a unique not-for-profit consortium of 31 ministries of education in Europe created in 1997. EUN provides major European education portals for teaching, learning and collaboration and leads the way in bringing about change in schooling through the use of new technology.
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