A shinning Day and beaming Smiles

Open to the public, the programme included conferences for adults and youngsters, and worksops for kids aged 7 to 13 years old.

Supervised by a team of students, 160 children participated in small groups to the workshops enabling them to discover various aspects of light: make a periscope to understand light reflected off a mirror, recompose white light by making a rainbow spinning-top, make light from chemical reactions, weld a solar flashlight, discover invisible light, make a sundial. These workshops were conceived and prepared especially for them by Daniele Mari, the Physics Section, the EPFL Photonics Chapter Association, and the Science Outreach Department.

Between workshops, that lasted from 10:00 to 15:00, kids enjoyed the generous meals prepared by the Ornithorynque and recharged their batteries.

The day ended up at the RLC with a great presentation by Christophe Perez, passionated by Northern Lights and scientific mediator, who talked to them and their parents who attended the conferences about this majestous phenomenon.

A big thank as well to the other speakers who talked about light from different perspectives in exactly 15 minutes: technical with Mr. Patrick Heinstein from CSEM, theological with Prof. Thomas Römer from UNIL, astrophysical with Dr Anaïs Rassat from EPFL, medical with Prof. Hubert Van den Bergh from EPFL, artistical with Mrs Bettina Tschumi from MUDAC.

Questions from the audience and speakers' point of views aroused curiosity, interest and openness towards other interesting worlds.