An ecological floor game: Learning about renewable sources of energy.

On the trail of last century's big inventions.

Throwback to experiments from the past that shaped today's science.

Seeking the missing black coal on Technopolis' premises.

Will the city at last be saved from darkness? The answer lies at the end of the road!

How can we build a telephone?

Young inventors solve the communication problem.

Observing the charming microcosm of the cells.

Can robots play football?

A new radio station in the making.

Does a strawberry have a DNA? Of course it does!

One of the most beloved games getting solved!

Young engineers in action!

When robotics and ecology get combined.

A big part of this years’ festival was again dedicated to our younger friends. Approximately 100 schools and hundreds of families chose the Athens Science Festival for an educational visit, and, most certainly, they were not left disappointed!

Kids of every age stormed into Technopolis’ halls and spread their joy and pep with their happy voices, playing and learning. A few competed in the “energy quiz” and then had fun while playing the floor game “I am moving ecologically”, enriching their knowledge on renewable sources of energy. Others put their inventiveness into use and became “young engineers”, building functional and novel systems. Some tested their abilities in circuit construction when they were faced with building a phone, whereas the ones who passed by the STEM experiments didn’t really know what to do first. Explore how much weight a hydraulic lifter can lift, give commands to a mechanical arm or maybe solve the riddle of the periodic table with the cookies? Build a race car which uses energy from a rubber band or test the stability of a bridge?

The ones drawn by electricity had the chance to travel back in time and witness experiments such as the electric kiss, the human chain and the function of a lightning conductor. The trip back in time went on with the discovery of old geological maps, the study of minerals and ores but also the flashback to historical experiments alongside Galileo, Newton and Boyle.

The technology enthusiasts set up an online radio station, created their own multimedia exhibit on the internet and designed the computer of their dreams, while the more traditional ones solved one of the oldest digital games – Rubik’s cube. On the STEM playground that was set up in the yard, our young engineers built robots out of LEGO and then watched a novel football game, where the players were not Messi and Ronaldo but ROBOT 0.1 and its friends.

The biology aficionados isolated the DNA of a strawberry and then transformed their mobile phone into a microscope to photograph the cell microcosmos. While the older kids were studying the human skeleton and the information it can provide about a person’s health, the younger ones learned that a worm, a fruit fly, a frog and a chicken “work overtime” in the biology lab, helping scientists understand the complex mechanisms underlying the nervous system.

Except from the aspiring engineers and the prospective scientists, there were also some detectives in the making. So, what happened as someone tried to steal the black coal to sabotage gas production, thus leaving a whole town in pitch darkness? Of course our young detectives were there to solve the mystery and save the city! And just as the dark mystery was solved, another woe came to be added – a series of student disappearances rattled us all! Without losing precious time, an Action Task Force consisting of ambitious young biologists was assembled and 3 hours later the conundrum was dealt with. How, you ask? By using their scientific knowledge, of course!

After five days full of experiments, mechanical structures and enigmas, accompanied by voices of excitement, joy and surprise, one thing is for sure – the Athens Science Festival wouldn’t be the same without our young friends. See you next year, for more experiments and fun!