The Valencian secondary school IES Juan de Garay wins the 6th National Hi Score Science Competition
“Why do we see veins with a bluish hue?” This is one of the winning questions of the 6th National Hi Score Science competition. An outreach project that aims to bring science to young people through a game of questions and answers about science for mobile devices and computers.
Hi Score Science is projected not only as a game of questions and answers about science, but also wants to go further and increase scientific culture and the interest of users in science, explaining what is behind new scientific advances. The project is developed by two research institutes, Instituto de Síntesis Química y Catálisis Homogénea (ISQCH) and the Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón (INMA), both joint centres of the CSIC and the University of Zaragoza, which allows for the inclusion of informative explanations of the scientific reality behind each of the answers. In addition, Hi Score Science encourages users to participate in the project by contributing scientific content to the game and rewarding them with a pass and a trip to the National Final held at the CSIC headquarters in Madrid, a visit to one of the CSIC museums and technological gifts for the individual prizes.
The prize-giving ceremony for the annual competition and the on-site competition took place in the Assembly Hall of the CSIC Headquarters in Madrid, at Calle Serrano 117, and was attended by leading authorities in the world of research and dissemination: Carlos Closa, Vice-President for Organisation and Institutional Relations at the CSIC, José María Fraile, Director of the Institute of Homogeneous Synthesis and Catalysis, and Pilar López García-Gallo, Director of Communications and Public Programmes at the National Museum of Natural Sciences.
The first part was the prize-giving ceremony in the content category, that is to say, for the secondary school students who sent us their questions. In this edition, more than 200 teams from all over Spain participated, sending us more than 4,000 questions, which, once reviewed and edited by a scientific team of 50 researchers, are published in the game with the name and the school that sent the question.
In the second part of the session, the 6th national face-to-face competition took place, in which students from the different Autonomous Communities put their scientific knowledge to the test by answering live and via their mobile phones questions such as “Why doesn’t the Moon fall towards the Earth?” or “Where would we see the Sun rise if we were exactly at the Earth’s geographic south pole?” “What would happen to a carrot left submerged in water with salt for some time?”
The session can be viewed via the competition’s YouTube channel @HiScoreScience.
Team categories are:
Winner: IES Juan de Garay – Valencia – Team: Juande cienciaTeacher in charge: Javier Julián
Second place: Colegio Santo Domingo De Silos – Zaragoza – Team: La Fernandeta – Teacher in charge: Fernando Rived
Third place: Colegio San Juan Bautista – Madrid – Team: Schrödinger’s cats – Teacher in charge: Alexandra Prada
Fourth place: Colegio Corazón de María – Gijón – Team Somos Codema – Teacher in charge: Laura Fernández
Fifth classified: IES Juan de Garay – Valencia – Team: Juade 4ever – Teacher in charge: Javier Julián
Individual category:
Winner: Muhmmad, Alyan – IES Juan de Garay – Valencia
Second place: Aldica, David – Colegio Santo Domingo de Silos – Zaragoza
Third place: Navas, Aitana – IES Juan de Garay – Valencia
Best question category:
Álvarez Ciércoles, Candela: Colegio Santo Domingo de Silos – Zaragoza
Onofre Ríos, Camila: IES Juan de Garay – Valencia
Morán, Alba: Colegio Corazón de María – Gijón
Gómez Mateos, María (Valencia): IES Juan de Garay – Valencia
Women and science category
Woman Scientist Question Award: Alison Quezada from Colegio SALESIANAS VILLAAMIL – COLEGIO MARÍA AUXILIADORA – Madrid
Second prize for woman scientist: IES Velázquez – Móstoles (Madrid)
An informative project in constant movement with international recognition
The Hi Score Science project was born in 2016 in response to the need to adapt outreach activities to the world of the youngest, belonging to the digital generation, which is currently focused on video games and new technologies. This project has progressed year after year, going from being a regional to a national project and reaching a more disadvantaged audience such as young patients in hospitals, prisons, rural inhabitants and adults, a group usually far from outreach activities that allow them to participate actively and not as mere observers.
The project has been awarded first prize in the 18th edition of the Science in Action programme in the category “Science Teaching Materials in Interactive Support” (IBM Award), has received the D+i TOP seal, a national recognition that rewards the best inclusive science outreach projects, has been nominated twice for the Third Millennium awards and has just received the runner-up prize in the category of best outreach project in the 1st CSIC Science Outreach and Citizen Science Awards.
Hi Score Science is a highly rated game among users with a score of 4.5 out of 5, a much higher score than other similar games, and currently has more than 40,000 downloads all over the world, mainly in Spain and Asia. The game has been presented in the different autonomous communities, at videogame, scientific and informative fairs, reaching 100,000 people.
The free, ad-free game, Hi Score Science, is available in the Play Store and Apple Store and on PC, Mac and Linux (www.HiScoreScience.org). All information about the project and how to enter the different categories is available at www.HiScoreScience.org.
A scientific team behind Hi Score Science
The Hi Score Science project has been developed between two research centres, the Institute of Chemical Synthesis and Homogeneous Catalysis, ISQCH, and the Institute of Nanoscience and Materials of Aragon, both joint centres of the CSIC and the University of Zaragoza.
The project counts with the collaboration of other UCC and science museums, such as the Deputy Vice-Presidency of Scientific Culture of the CSIC (VACC), the museums: Nacional de Ciencias Naturales de Madrid, Instituto Geológico y Geominero de España, Museo Elder de la Ciencia y la Tecnología, Museo Eureka, Casa de la Ciencia de Sevilla, CIUTAT DE LES ARTS I LES CIÈNCIES, Casa de la Ciencia de Valencia, Natural Sciences of the University of Zaragoza and the Planetarium of Aragón, the University of Cantabria, the University of Alcalá, as well as the town councils of small towns such as Benasque and the Comarca de Calatayud and the CASIO Educational Unit #CientíficasCASIO.
23/05/2023
