During
the 7th season of SYP, our Young Minds section has continued to
expand our efforts to bring physics education to areas that are further from
the capital of Latvia. In addition to the destinations we visited in the past
season (Valmiera, Kuldiga and Ventspils), we’ve added another large city to
that mix – this year, Liepaja, our most southwestern city, has joined the fold.
Students experimenting during a
visit in Valmiera
A
variety of topics have been presented – sometimes, topics that have yet to
premiere in the capital have test runs, other times, well established (and
improved) topics are chosen. Across various cities, lectures on topics such as
astronomy, acoustics and forensic science have been given.
Even if the topics repeat in
different cities, the approach is often different, because the audience is
different – in Kuldiga, it a smaller group of high school students, but in
Ventspils, for example, it is a larger group of grade 8 – 9 students. To make
the experience as entertaining and valuable as possible, we try to tailor each
session to the audience that we’re visiting.
During this semester, the SYP
team has visited Valmiera three times, Kuldiga twice, Ventspils twice and
Liepaja once. Our aim is to continue holding sessions in these cities in the second half of the school year as well, and plans for adding sessions in
another city are in the works.
A group of students
outside, after solving a mock crime scene
