On April 12, I gave two conferences at two high schools in Cerdanyola del Vallès. During my visits to IES Banús and IES Forat del Vent, I introduced students to my research and shared with them my academic journal.
The talks were entitled: “Horitzons de recerca STEM: CAT-CAL-NL” (STEM research horizons: CAT-CAL-NL) and were targetted both 1st and 2nd-grade high school students, who are supposed to start their university studies after completing the 2nd grade. By sharing my own academic record, the goal was to make them aware of future academic paths and encourage them to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
I briefly introduced students to the physics of bubbles and highlighted its relevance and complexity. Using a bottle of soda, shaking it, and chasing a volunteer to open it, I tried to incite curiosity in such phenomena and discussed the exciting topics of bubble nucleation and bubble detachment. I also tried to connect some of the topics of their curriculum to my research: matrices, derivatives or redox reactions, all those topics are at the core of what I (and many other researches) do every day!
The talks were attended by a total of 30 students at IES Banús and about 50 at IES Forat del Vent. After my conference, there were several interesting questions from the audience mostly about hydrogen and their own career path. Some students also shared some of their research projects, which I found very exciting.