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We organise this contest with the intend to interest young people in technology and science
in the broadest sense of the word.
It is open to all disciplines, sciences and humanities.
And the contest is aimed at young people between 12 and 21 years. The goal is
to motivate as many people as possible to enter the competition, so we are represented
in all internships and foreign competitions. That young people can see
what's possible, that they have passion for science and technology, find self confidence
and really see what is offered in the extra-curricular area.
The science exhibition is for those who do not want to face a jury,
if you just want to try it once or if you just want to present your project without having to answer questions.
There you get a little gift. If you participate in the contest, like the 12 groups that
participated in the contest, you win trips, workshops,
internships, such as the London International Youth Science Forum
or the most prestigious European competition, the EUCYS
the European Union Contest for Young Scientists,
which this year takes place in Helsinki.
Project: The Racoon. We watched how
the raccoon lives. So we went to
the “Beetebuerger Park” to ask a few questions. What it eats,
where it lives, where it originates. There we got our responses
and that’s how we made our project.
Well for example I did not know that it lives in Luxembourg, so I found that out.
And I always thought that the racoon is fairly cautious
but in fact it goes to the humans.
What did you gain from your participation?
We went to Belgium to
present our project, where I met a person from Malta.
That is something that fascinated me a lot,
that I get to meet people that I wouldn’t usually meet because they live so far away.
We started with an overall description of what they do, who invented it, the company’s history
and then specialised on an experiment with a Mentos sweet where we observed
a physical reaction.Softdrinks like Fanta,
Coke or Sprite contain an artificial sweetener called
Acesulfame potassium also known as E950, which is 200 times
sweeter than regular sugar. Why did you attend?
We had a presentation at our school and immediately thought why shouldn’t we participate? Myriams brother
did it last year and was fascinated. What did you gain from your participation?
I would say we learned how to better organise ourselves.
it is very important for the youth to have something like this with a higher level.
Someone who is interested in a topic can translate it in to action here and that is why I support this.
Study on alcohol consumption in adolescents.
We got our idea in a famous wine festival on the Moselle, the Piccadilly,
where we were shocked to see how young people deal with alcohol consumption.
So we decided that we needed to do a project on that.
We handed out 300 questionnaires to pupils of the Lycée de Garçons Esch-sur Alzette (LGE) and evaluated the results.
We found out that alcohol is being glorified and advertised too much.
One of the reasons for that is the financial gain the government gets from alcohol consumption. We blame
the parents for not pointing out to their children how bad alcohol really is.
This is a good opportunity not only for us to work on a project
but also to share our ideas and
to learn how to convey our ideas to others.
We, we wanted to check if plants have defence systems, thus
a defence against heavy metals and herbivory. Heavy metals are elements
that are deposited in an ecosystem and herbivory is when you cut 3 cm from the largest leaf.
We measured each leaf from a fixed point and
checked whether there was loss of electrolytes, in short if the cells died, with a complicated measurement process.
How did you get this idea?
We passed by the “Giele Botter”, which is in Differdange and is now a protected natural area.
We wondered why these plants grow like that since it is a polluted,
former industrial site. We thought it would overflow with heavy metals and investigated
how plants were able to defend themselves.
What did you gain from your participation?
We found out that for example the leaf we cut shows no growth,
while the second leaf simply takes over. It grows
even faster! The plants that we treated
with copper on the other hand,
do not grow at all. Their growth is stagnant. The conclusion we have drawn
is that the plants in ecosystems containing heavy metals
are not growing and they can not defend themselves as well against herbivory.
I think it is a personal experience that allows you to get in to the scientific field,
experiment and learn how it all works. Overall I would say it is an invaluable experience.