En 
Da
The Otto Mønsted Foundation has donated funds to the Festival of Natural Sciences over the past few years. It is a professional and social event, in which more than 150,000 children and young people participate in thousands of festival activities across the country.
The festival is a large scale project that puts the focus on natural science and, among other things, has the purpose of increasing young people’s interest in science by giving them practical, hands-on experiences related to authentic problems in their daily lives.
“The festival creates both a professional and relaxed frame through which children and young people can be engaged in science and at the same time strengthen the scientific subjects in primary and secondary education all year round,” says Mikkel Bohm, director of Astra.
2018 was the 20th anniversary of the festival. The theme of this year was “the outer limit”, and it revolved around extremities within physical phenomena, ethics, man and nature. A curriculum was attached to each of these four subjects, aimed at all levels of education.
One initiative among many is the “mass experiment”, which had a focus on ‘good germs’ and the scientific method. On the hunt for good germs, the various school classes were tasked with collecting samples from nature and researching them in their classrooms afterwards. After further analysis, the various strains of bacteria which can be classified as new, will be published and be available in a public bacteria bank.
www.naturvidenskabsfestival.dk
