Two new “CERNland Expert” laureates

Two classes (46 ten-year-old pupils) from the Primary School of Binago (Como, Italy) participated in the project of the master's thesis by Valentina Rigamonti, a student from the University of Milan. The project was about CERNland, CERN’s website for kids. “CERNland Expert” diplomas and DVDs of the website were the must-have prizes of this original competition. Valentina tells us more about her work.

 

Winners of the "CERNland drawing competition": Zoe Uboldi (left) and Aminta Invitto.

"My thesis project, carried out in collaboration with CERN’s Communication group, was designed to study the impact of communicating science to children using CERNland educational games.

Over the course of three meetings the enthusiastic pupils had the opportunity to play with CERNland and participate in various activities to learn first-hand what a scientist is and how science works.

At the first meeting, kids drew a scientist, alone or in his/her working environment. After that, the children were invited to play with CERNland and to follow a short presentation about CERN and its experiments. The children were subsequently asked to do a second drawing and to give explanations and details about their work.

In this way, I was able to gather 87 colourful drawings! Some were more imaginative and others more realistic. Each of them portrays a very interesting image of the scientist. Very importantly, while playing with CERNland, the children showed their enthusiasm for the games as well as giving some constructive feedback, which has already been used by the CERNland team to improve the website navigation.

In order to thank the children and the school,  a small competition was organised: the children were able to see all the drawings of their contemporaries and voted for the two best drawings (each class was only able to vote for a drawing done by another class). The winners of the "CERNland drawing competition" are: Aminta Invitto (4°A) and Zoe Uboldi (4°B). The two proud winners received a “CERNland Expert” diploma especially designed for them. All the children received a copy of the CERNland DVD with the new navigation system and even a new game as a gift!

I would like to thank all of them for participating in my project with such great enthusiasm and commitment."


The CERN Communication Group joins Valentina Rigamonti in thanking the pupils and the school for their collaboration in the project.

by Valentina Rigamonti