During the school year 2019- 2020, Keysight’s Barcelona office ordered more than 200 experiments for almost 1,000 students—an increase of almost 50%! “Due to the Coronavirus outbreak and the school closures, only half of the experiments could be delivered. However, we hope we can deliver the remaining ones in September once schools get back to the new normal, as students were really looking forward to the activity,” said Sarah Colomer, Executive Assistant, and Keysight After School Program Coordinator in Barcelona.
Outreach at local school in Barcelona: The last after-school event before confinement
One day before school classes were suspended, Keysight Technologies Spain volunteers went to Escola Els Llorers to celebrate probably the last after-school event just before COVID-19 confinement started.
This year, 100 kits were distributed: 50 for the 5th grade with the owl pellets experiment and 50 for the 6th-grade solar car experiment.
Owl Pellets / The Food Web – 5th grade
This hands-on experiment allowed students to investigate the food web, identify animal skeletons, and practice dissecting skills. Each student dissected an owl pellet and classified the remains using a bone-sorting chart. “The look on the students’ faces went from total disgust to total awe when they finally discovered what animals the bones they sorted belonged to. It is always fun to see children’s reactions to experiments,” said Johanna Orpana, Keysight new Nordic, Israel, and UK Supervisor for CCC Europe. At the same time Regina Mundigl, from the CCC Europe DACH Customer Service team said, “This is my first time as an after-school volunteer, but I certainly will be volunteering for more of these events.”
The Solar Car / Renewable Energy in Cars – 6th grade
Inga Urbina—SWE Global Ambassador, Spain—delivered this outreach event with Marta Trujillo of the Keysight DACH Customer Service team.
The experiment was done within the context of their 2nd-trimester project: “the universe and the natural phenomena in the blue planet.” During the experiment, students discussed solar energy as a renewable resource and created their own solar-powered car to observe the use of the sun’s energy to power a vehicle.
“At some point, we were running out of time, so I advised a girl to finish the connections at home by using pliers to unscrew, connect and readjust screws,” explained Inga. Then, the girl replied: “I am not allowed to touch the toolbox at home.”
“That was the ‘Aha moment’ for me,” said Inga. “The reason why we do these events. It blew my mind that even at this day and age girls are not allowed to use regular tools at home. If, for whatever reason, girls are not exposed or are not allowed to play and experiment with basic tools, it’s no wonder why later they do not choose to study or follow a career in STEM,” reflected Inga.
The school wanted to publicly thank Keysight Technologies for all the kits received and made a page about the Keysight After School Program on the school webpage. More pictures of the 6th grade experiment can be found here.
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