November 2005

ALONG THE MEKONG… A peripatetic programme of scientific activities on the theme of water

June 2006

Inspired by the diverse beauty of Earth’s landscapes and keen to make discoveries, we have decided to go next year to South Asia and travel along the Mekong, from the Sea of China to Himalayan Tibet. But in order to better understand the cultures we are to encounter, to fully experience life in the countries along our way, we cannot simply behave like tourists. That is why we had the idea of designing a programme of scientific activities aimed at children. The project will focus on the theme of water, source of life, that “blue gold” which also has so much symbolic and sacred significance all over the world. The programme will provide an awakening to the world of science, based on fun experiments and exploring water’s importance to us all, including environmental and health concerns. First and foremost, we want to keep this project open and adapt it to the children’s expectations, the resources available, and the issues relevant to each region.

Thomas Julou [email protected]

Agathe Schmid [email protected]

http://lelongdumekong.free.fr

What are our aims To set up a relationship based on exchange

We want to offer the children what we know, and encourage them to ask themselves questions that are interesting and important for their daily lives - from their day-to-day health, to the preservation of our planet. Equally, this exchange will teach us how better to share our knowledge and our questions, and help us to understand other cultures, getting to know their people and sharing their emotions. Our presentation, which will be tailored to meet the needs of individuals, cannot in any sense be compared to a development programme. It will instead involve meeting with the children and offering them an insight into Western culture and thought. We

hope this will arouse their curiosity and lead them to ask new questions - perhaps through opposition to our ideas. But we want to completely avoid promoting any misguiding conception of western culture as somehow superior. Dicovering experimental methods Water, a resource to preserve Water, the source of life, has always been precious to mankind. For us, it will be an easy-to-find basis for simple experiments. The programme will be organised around three complementary themes: Scientific awareness based on simple experiments, presented in a striking way, which could be a practical supplement to the children’s scientific education. This first step will let us introduce experimental methods, based on the fundamental questions proposed below.

To put issues arising in the previous step into perspective, we will consider questions of environment and sustainability: the aim is to make children aware of the value of water and of the importance of conserving it, for example by giving them a basic idea of the water cycle. The second application will involve looking at water as a source of life, by demonstrating for instance the presence of water in every living organism. In addition, we hope that showing the children the biodiversity which is always present in cloudy water, will be a way to increase their awareness of hygiene issues. Throughout this project, we will underline the importance of experimental methods by encouraging the children to make precise observations and form hypotheses, and then to imagine ways of testing them.

The framework we propose This programme is aimed at a wide age group, from 7 to 14 years: we want our presentation to appeal to the largest possible audience. We will work for several days with the children, in order to conduct longer experiments and to establish the dialogue so important for this kind of exchange. The programme’s structure will have to be flexible; provisionally we propose to work with the children for a few hours a day (one and a half hours to three hours) for at least one week. As far as possible, we will work with children who have at least a basic command of spoken English. In other cases, we will require an interpreter.

Our plan of action “Key” experiments for increased appeal In order to attract the children’s attention and interest them in the theme of our presentation, we will start with a few “key” experiments. We will use experiments with unexpected results to intrigue the children, leading them to ask questions. In this way we hope to open up space for dialogue, in order to help the children make hypotheses about the observed phenomena and come to satisfying explanations. A constantly developing programme, based on genuine dialogue and available resources We really want this project to be a genuine exchange with the children. We will therefore develop it according to their expectations and reactions. Throughout the week, we will help the children build on their ideas by encouraging debate, taking their points of view seriously and helping them to formulate their questions in a

scientific way. We will be choosing between a series of experiments we have already devised, taking into consideration the children’s interests and the means available in different places. We should emphasise that most of the experiments do not require any specific apparatus, and can therefore easily be done anywhere, and that all the experiments are completely safe. An approach based on “phenomenological” explanations To help the children understand what they observe, we will as far as possible propose “phenomenological” explanations: explanations that can be understood any prior knowledge of the subject. This vivid and concrete approach to science will broaden our target audience, and aims to capture their imaginations. In a school setting, we would be able to offer demonstrations of key points dealt with in the classroom, in close dialogue with the teacher. In such cases we could offer more precise explanations, relying on the children’s previous experience.

Along the Mekong… From November 2005 to June 2006, our journey will follow the course of the river. From the Mekong Delta in Vietnam to Tibet where the river has its source, we will set out to discover the region’s people along with their natural and cultural heritage. Here is a provisional plan of our journey: Vietnam Cambodge Laos Yunnan Sichuan Tibet

Nov.–Dec. December January-February March April May-June

About us

Thomas

Our scientific backgrounds We have both received a high-level general scientific education in France’s prestigious classes préparatoires, and now study science in two different fields: Agathe is currently at an engineering school, and Thomas will be starting a PhD in biology after our trip. These two different types of scientific training will complement each other, allowing us to explore many different aspects of water’s importance. We are therefore well-matched to give the children an excellent overview of the topic, starting from the practical experiment stage and working up to theoretical explanations. Our teaching skills and experience of working with young people The idea for this activities programme came naturally to us, since we have both already had a great deal of teaching experience with young people: Thomas has worked on raising scientific awareness within a primary school class, in the context of “La Main à la Pâte” (http://lamap.fr), a French organisation created to promote science teaching through practical experiments at school. Over the course of a semester he regularly visited the children, introducing them to biology through simple, fun experiments. Agathe Appearances can be deceptive... Agathe’s calm exterior conceals a curiosity and an enthusiasm betrayed by that mischievous gleam in her eye. Her persevering nature has brought her unscathed through many trials and tribulations. She loves meeting new people, and gives free rein to her musical sensitivity by playing in several chamber music groups.

Passionately living life to the full, Thomas enjoys cooking good food as much as he likes eating it. Both curious and rigorous in his enquiries, he is soon to slake his thirst for the unknown by becoming a researcher in biology. Though a Breton by origin, he is captivated by the wild beauty of mountains, and scales them with the equipment and the enthusiasm of an avid climber. He’s not just a thinker; he’s also a dynamic doer.

-Agathe has for several years been teaching music theory and piano to young people of various ages. This has given her valuable experience of adapting her methods according to the age of her pupils. Our advisors We have had the invaluable help of several scientists in designing this programme. In particular, Richard-Emmanuel Eastes, founder of an organisation for scientific awareness, has a wealth of teaching experience and proposes the type of simple explanations of observed phenomena, which are perfectly suited to the context of our project.

What next? Now that we have devised this project, we need to find organisations to receive us. For instance, we would be delighted to work with some of the numerous organisations that have founded centres or schools for deprived children in the countries we are to visit. (See map overleaf) We are therefore looking for organisations or schools interested in our project. We would also be very grateful for any available reports on the social and economic issues specific to each region, and on the children’s level of English in these areas.