Secondary school students from Barreiro rediscover the planet during a visit to the Instituto Dom Luiz

It was on solid ground that 150 students from the Santo André Secondary School (ESSA), in Barreiro, disembarked this Tuesday at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Ciências ULisboa) to begin a guided tour from the depths of the sea to the brightest rays of sunshine. During the excursion organised by the Instituto Dom Luiz (IDL), the young people took turns in five themed laboratories, with exercises and experiments supporting the activities of the Department of Earth Sciences and Energy (DCTE), and they also had their first contact with theories that promise to fuel curiosity about everything that is still unknown about this planet.

“I found the visit very interesting and I would like to come back here to have more experiences in different scientific areas,” says Raquel, a Year 10 student at ESSA. “I want to study in the sciences and I have always thought about studying here as one of my options,” adds the secondary school student.

Even for those who intend to pursue a career in other professional areas not directly linked to the sciences that study the planet, there were identifiable benefits: “I would like to take a course in the field of mathematics, which would allow me to work in economics or management, but here I discovered other very interesting areas of study. This knowledge is also useful for everyday life,” emphasises Diogo, an ESSA student.

The visit was organised by IDL and always had DCTE as its backdrop, but it also introduced all the undergraduate courses taught in Sciences ULisboa right at the start of proceedings. Afterwards, there followed an exploration of five laboratories that had been selected in advance in coordination with the teachers from ESSA.

“These visits help to give a clearer idea about what can be done in each branch of science. Some of these students are undecided: some like biology, and some like geology; some prefer chemistry and others want to pursue physics. The way the visit was organised ends up giving them arguments so that, one day in the future, they can decide on their field of study,” says Fátima Sucena, Physics and Chemistry teacher at ESSA.

The programme included visits to the Laboratories of Tectonics, Seismology, Paleo-Geomagnetism, Marine Geology, and to the Solar Campus, which featured visits to a rather curious vegetable garden and an explanation about the functioning of the more than 1,600 photovoltaic panels located on the roofs of the Faculty. According to the organisers, the excursion, which covered five Year 10 classes, may well have awakened the scientific spirit in some humanities students who admitted considering a switch to the sciences.

“We have shown that professionals from here go on to work for various companies and national research centres, as well as for NASA, ESA, or the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich). Even before starting work at other institutions, IDL students and researchers have the opportunity to do fieldwork in places as diverse as Brazil, Mauritius or Antarctica. These are roles that many of our students have dreamed of since childhood. And this is only possible because we offer courses here with solid foundations in both theoretical and practical training, which have unique characteristics in the current educational landscape,” explains Célia Lee, Science and Technology Manager at IDL.

It was from the Seismology Laboratory that perhaps the most spectacular effect emerged, with a simulation of an earthquake, as well as recommendations for personal protection in these less desirable scenarios. In the Marine Geology Laboratory, science outreach included hydrothermal vents, rocks collected from more than 3,000 metres deep by scientific missions from Ciências ULisboa, and the viewing of samples under the microscope and magnifying glass.

For the Tectonics Laboratory, demonstrations were reserved on compression and distension movements that affect the Earth's surface, and even the tectonics of other planets was not forgotten. It was up to the Palaeo-Geomagnetism Laboratory to reveal how one can determine the age of various strata that make up a rock, as well as the type of materials or even the pollution found in samples. On the Solar Campus, it was the pros and cons of installing photovoltaic panels in vegetable gardens that received the most attention.

Because science is made by humans, the visit also served to reveal other factors valued by those who are in the midst of their studies. And it was in this mission that some of the DCTE students stood out, such as Mário Vilas, president of the Energy Workshop: “We tried to show that Ciências ULisboa is a good option for those going into higher education. We promoted academic programmes, but we didn’t forget to show what a normal day is like in the life of Ciências ULisboa.” The IDL will take care of showing the rest of the planet.