Congratulations!!

What a Friday afternoon it was! Young scientists, future doctors, inventors gathered in a naturally sun-heated Aula to present their Group 4 project. The theme was FIRE. Among cookies, coke and laughter there were  movies, charts, and creative performances and lots of good vibes. The words oscillated between fractional distillation, combustion, spark, briquette pipette, electromagnetic induction and thellium. One could be reminded of the old fact that that old cookers should be safely dumped because of the freon found in them.

Fire is a great theme for a project like this. Around 440 B.C. there lived Empedocles who established earth, air, fire, and water as the four elements (though the word “element” was not used by him). Each of these were everlasting but they could be mixed in different proportions and thus produce the changing complex substances that we find in the world. They were combined by Love and separated by Strife. (History of Western Philosophy, Bertrand Russell, 1948) Empodocles was an interesting man, a bit of a scientist, philosopher and a shaman. Legend says that in order to prove that he is a god he jumped into the crater of the volcano Etna. It did not work for him. What a story!

Thank you teachers, Piotr Rączka for being a great moderator and the tutors of the projects: Ania Chojnowska, Berenika Targos, Sławek Smoliński, and Mikołaj Zapalski.

You all did a great job!

Ewa Stawecka