VII European Conference of RM@Schools. Bologna, 25.10.2022,
Mineralogical Museum gaio-ORAMA was there!
Τhe 7th European Conference of RM@Schools (VII European Conference of RM@Schools) was organised With great success on 25 October 2022, in Bologna, Italy, by the National Council of Research (CNR) of Bologna, in the framework of the European educational programmes RM@Schools & RM@Schools ESEE. Greece was represented by students of the Gennadios School and members of the School of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering (Mineralogical Museum of gaio-ORAMA) of the National Technical University of Athens, partners of the RM@Schools ESEE Program.
Are there any edible minerals? Which minerals are hidden in a glass and which in a cooking pot? What colour is the salt of Hawaii? What does the meeting of a “Martian” and an astronaut reveal about mineral resources on Mars? How many minerals are needed to build a spacecraft? These and many other questions were answered with enthusiasm, ingenuity, and knowledge by the 3rd grade students of the Gennadios School’s Gymnasium, presenting their projects RM@Kitchen (Varelogiannis Ioannis, Mavridis Antonis, Panopoulos Paris, Paralaki Irini, Stamatopoulou Dimitra) and RM@Mars (Kalogeropoulou Ioanna, Mpratsiakos Vasilis, Oikonomou Mariza, Tserpeli Eva, Tsourounakis Antonis). Their lively stage presence and the interactive way of presenting their projects, which won the impressions of all the participants, was the result of the teamwork they had done since the beginning of the school year with the significant contribution and guidance of their teachers, Mr. Vasilis Grivas and Mr. Panagiotis Chasapogiannis and the support of the Director of the Gymnasium and the Director of the Gennadios School, Mr. E. Perakis and Mr. S. Foufas, respectively. The Director of Mineralogical Museum of gaio-ORAMA, professor Maria Perraki and Dr. Apostolos Kourtis from the School of Mining and Metallurgical Enginerring, NTUA acted as scientific advisors of both projects.
In the second part of the conference, students from Italy, Hungary, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, Greece and other countries participated in the interactive game “Who wants to be a R(aw) M(aterial) ambassador?”, the design and development of which was based, in part, on the well-known game show “Who wants to be a millionaire”. The game’s presenter, Apostolos Kourtis, Dr. EDIP NTUA, and his assistant Despina Psarraki, PhD student NTUA, offered knowledge and a lot of laughter to the players and the audience, Eleni Grigorakou, ETEP NTUA captured the moments. The winners left with gifts from the Mineralogical Museum geo-ORAMA.
The conference ended with tastes from the gastronomy of each country, where again the Greek participation won the impressions.
[The RM@SCHOOLS & RM@Schools ESEE projects are aimed at educating students in European schools (age range 11-19 years old) on issues related to Mineral Raw Materials (RM). The scope is to inform students about the role and importance of RM in meeting the essential needs of modern society, to raise awareness on environmental and climate change issues, to familiarise students with the basic principles of the circular economy in the extraction, utilisation, use/reuse of mineral raw materials, etc. The three-year RM@SCHOOLS-ESEE project, which runs from 2020 to 2022, involves 16 European countries and is funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology for Mineral Raw Materials (EIT Raw Materials). Greece is represented by the School of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering (Mineralogical Museum geo-ORAMA) of the National Technical University of Athens (Emeritus Professor I. Paspaliaris, Scientific Responsible, Professor A. Adam, Educational Advisor of the EIT Raw Materials Regional Centre Greece, Professor M. Perraki, Director of the Mineralogical Museum geo-ORAMA).
The development of the game “Who wants to be a R(aw) M(aterial) ambassador?” was carried out by M. Perraki, Professor, P. Tsangaratos, Assistant Professor, I. Ilias, Dr. Geologist, who also designed the graphics, and V. Skliros, PhD student, in the framework of the European project RM@Schools ESEE.]