On the 26th of October, four classrooms from second year of high school came to ESAC from IES Alonso Quijano. All of them learnt about the topographic studies and their importance.

The first two classrooms came at 9.30AM and, after the welcoming, the monitors answered several questions the students brought with them. After this part, we split them in two main groups to start the guided tour and the scientific case.

During the guided tour, they were able to learnt about some the most important ESA missions which are available as huge scale models at ESAC, for example: Gaia, Rosetta or Herschel. As usual, lots of questions appeared and also some surprises: the students could touch and feel the resistance and lightness of an Arianne 5 piece. 

In the meantime, the other group started the scientific case about topographic studies. After a short introduction, they split in four small groups which rotated around the different cases. The experience most liked was the augmented reality sandbox, in which the students could create with their own hands several features as lakes or mountains. Thanks to this experience they could assimilate in an interactive way concepts like the contour lines or height gradients.

After these first two classrooms, at 11.30AM two other classrooms came to repeat with the same motivation the full experience. During the welcoming, they asked about the presence of water on Mars or current projects to deal with space debris. 

It’s quite impressive the curiosity and motivation of these young students. It’s clear that several of them will continue with the curiosity for science and technology.

We hope to see you soon!