On this page you can read impressions and testimonials by observers, students and teachers.
Impressions from IAPS (International Association of Physics Students) representative:
" The day went better than my expectations. It began with the schools arriving and kids getting curious about everything around them. Then there were the greetings from organizers and FVG authorities, which made students feel important. Then we had the presentation of BSBF and its career fair; and the inspirational talk connecting science with sustainable development. The students seemed amazed by it, well actually they were thrilled. You could see them even more interested and thinking about their futures. They were amazed by the presentation of Barbora, where they were able to even participate and they felt their voice heard; besides laughing a bit. Then there was the round table with STEM role models, that inspired the teenagers further to project themselves in future careers. After the Youth@STEM4SF competition launch, they were motivated even more to create something new and to work as a team, create their future, and start thinking as future leaders as Barbora called them. This was shown not only in their laughs or in their body language during the conference but one could even see it in their project presentations; later that day. While working on their teams, I think the students were able to understand the difficulties of not only having an idea and expressing it but to work as a team. They were all motivated and focused on it. During their presentations, they had a moment to shine and see how it is to explain an idea to the public concisely and effectively."
Testimonials from students:
“The presentation was very interesting. I’ve much enjoyed the way CERN’s particle accelerator helps the world. At school we do not really use physics for real-life examples, or for sustainability, so this concept is very good. What we’ve learn at school, is much more theoretical.”
“It has broaden my perspective, obviously I knew, that science had practical uses, but it made me think more in future sense, how I can contribute in such things, like even health, that I did not know. Example when we can use the particle accelerator to cure a cancer, that’s pretty cool to see applications from physics in life…”
”It’s been great. A lot of interesting stories, it was very inspirational to hear all these different perspectives, stories about how these professional entrepreneurs became what they are today. Also, this relation of science with business, is something that really interests us, it’s also a topic we would like to pursue in our careers, so it was great to hear about it. We know, what physics is, but what we have learned, what physics is as a study and what does it mean to be a physicist in real life! This was the most useful for us.”
“We learned many new things: all these applications of physics in day-to-day life, what CERN has brought to humanity in general, and all about these different perspectives of connecting science with business and how important it is for society. How many different career paths you can have as a physicist! You have an idea, what to do, but to hear actual stories, gives you better idea, what to expect after you finish your education. It’s not only about being in the laboratory, it’s also about going out to the world, talking to people, going to politicians, maybe finance, maybe business, everything… so it’s not just that you have to write some lengthy papers during your career, but there are lot of different opportunities, that you can explore. “
“I already have chosen physics to study, but I feel more confident in what to focus on during my education, where to invest my time in. It is better to pursue the purely academic career and to achieve PhD, as soon as possible, or maybe just learn basics and then to apply this knowledge to corporate in different projects even start working…”
“I think, we have now better idea, which would be better option for us in terms of our career choice! I’m much more confident about security in the job market, because now we see that there are so many opportunities, that even with these advancements and new technologies, our jobs are not really threatened because there are so many areas, we can explore and for young people this is something very crucial at this point of our career, because sometimes we might be anxious or uncertain of how our careers mat turn out, but now we saw how many opportunities there are. I think we both feel that our future is quite certain in our job security and having decent job opportunity in the future. “
“I think there are a lot of stereotypes about scientific studies, like you don’t have a good job, you’ll spend the rest of your life stuck in the laboratory, doing research, and just to see and to hear stories from people who are scientists and who are actually successful, enjoy what they are doing, gives you a kick to pursue it!”
“We’re both students of IBO programme, so to some extent we are also covering some topics we learn at school to some day -to-day applications. But the most beneficial part of today’s programme was that we heard from experts, first-hand experience about their career path, and that’s what especially me, I’m missing at school. I think, in our programme we do all this theoretical part but we do not know, what to do with it, and we were just talking about how great it would be to have some lessons at school, where they would advise us how to plan our careers and what universities to apply to, how to apply, and having people who succeeded in this field, and their path, was definitely useful and also inspirational. “
Testimonials from teachers:
“Youth@STEM4SF programme is very useful for our students, for our future at all. We can really implement this knowledge together to teach our students how think sustainably. Students were very inspired about the programme, they actually liked it, they were really into it, participating in the competition Youth@STEM4SF.”
“To teach this interdisciplinary projects, I think, teachers need more guidance, materials, so they can be more educated to teach that broad spectrum of science.”
“The programme is very useful because in Slovenia we do not have STEAM education. We tried but I need some more experience, some more materials, to engage other teachers, especially from biology, chemistry, and also from arts, to join us. I have to represent it to my leadership at school and then will start with it.”
“These subjects are today totally extra, it’s not in a curricula at this stage, but we’ll change the curricula in Slovenian schools next year, sustainable future, eliminate climate change and things like that has to be in the curriculum… However, we do not have materials for teachers yet. Hopefully we’ll have in the future but not yet."
“We also want to get some ideas of what students could do at school for project in sustainable future. I’m happy that I can participate in the project, and that other teachers in Europe can hopefully have some other materials to teach about sustainable future!”
