Chemistry Classroom
Since 2007 the AEQT has been sponsoring the Chemistry Classroom, an educational project on how the chemical sector works, its risks and processes, its products, and how they are used to improve our life. The Classroom is located in Tarragona’s Camp de Aprendizaje, in the Educational Complex, and offers late Primary, Middle and High School students an immersion in the petrochemical industry through an interactive and experimental methodology.
The Classroom’s activities reach 2,000 students each school year, and can be supplemented with visits to the industry. The Classroom intends to enhance the students’ education and improve their knowledge of the local chemical industry. AEQT believes that this type of activities are important in order to foster a trusting relationship between industry and society, based on transparency.
APQUA
Experimental Workshops during Science Week
Since 1991 AEQT has been collaborating in URV’s APQUA project (Learning about Chemical Products, their Uses and Applications). The project sponsors experimental workshops during APQUA’s Science Week in Tarragona, where students can experiment the magic of chemistry.
In its 2019 edition 1,500 students from 31 primary, middle and high schools in Camp de Tarragona participated in these experimental workshops, which were held at the Sescelades CRAI. 30 workshops intended to acquaint youngsters with chemistry and technology in a simple and attractive manner, educating them on chemistry’s contributions to people and the environment. Among other things, participants learned how to create an engine, calibrate a light bulb’s efficiency, extract DNA or lactose, or to determine which food has more vitamin C.
Tarragona’s Chemistry Research Prize
Since 1999 the AEQT and the Chemistry Department of the URV organize Tarragona’s Chemistry Research Prize. This prize rewards scientific initiative and promotes interest in science and chemical technology.
It is open to basic, applied or educational research on chemistry by students from either public or private schools, preferably from high school, performed under the supervision of one or more of their teachers. This prize represents a pioneering effort in rewarding and stimulating research work in secondary education in Tarragona, and seeks to foster research and scientific vocations in high school seniors. Each year first, second and third prizes are awarded, all of them including a cash prize for the student an another one for their school.
TRICS Forum
The AEQT collaborates with the TRICS Forum (Research Works and Synthesis Credits). Every year around April 2,600 students from over 40 educational centers in Tarragona gather at Tarragona’s Educational Complex.
The Forum’s main activity is to have high school or trade school seniors present their course work. This helps high school or trade school juniors acquire new ideas on different subject matters and procedures.
The main goal is to foster the exchange of ideas, improve student communication skills and provide orientation and information on university studies. The project is reflects the values of AEQT’s and the chemical sector: research, academic excellence, solidarity, generosity – seniors presenting their work in order to help junior students- fostering scientific vocations, and supporting future talent. It is also a meeting space where the educational community can exchange experiences.
Basketball Chemistry
In line with its commitment to educate society about what chemistry is, how it works, its impact, risks, products and their impact on everyday life, AEQT started the “Chemistry of Basketball” project in 2019, along with Messer, one of its member companies, and the Tarragona Basketball Club (CBT).
The activity consists of itinerant workshops in the region’s schools, in which CBT’s A- team players provide an initial theoretical explanation showing the presence of chemical products in everyday life, in sports, and in basketball, followed by a master class on sports.
The activity’s intention is for children to know how chemistry affects a specific area of everyday life through multiple products, from a basketball to clothes, the court surface or the basket rim’s paint, while simultaneously promoting heathy lifestyle habits through sports. For the AEQT these educational activities for younger children are especially important in getting them acquainted with chemistry as a science and an industry. Fostering scientific vocation is a strategic element for AEQT, not only from the social responsibility viewpoint but also as a tool to promote the development of future industry professionals.
