The National Student Travel Foundation – Malta (NSTF), in collaboration with the Ministry for Gozo, has organised the first science festival ‘Science Days in Gozo’ which is open until Friday, the 28th of March, at the Ministry for Gozo in St Francis Square, Victoria.

The festival has attracted over 700 students who registered to visit this event, with 400 students participating in Primary Level Programmes (Science Art Contest and Primary School Contest for young Scientists), 10 students participating in the Secondary School Contest for young Scientists, 100 students participating in the pan-European event Science Photo Contest, and there are over 55 projects exhibited during the science days in Gozo.Special science communicators have organised interactive sessions for the students, namely; Prof. Richard O’Kennedy from Ireland’s University of Enterprise, President of the London International Youth Science Forum will deliver interactive science sessions on Applied Biochemistry for secondary school students. MITA and Elearning will talk about Robotics and Scratch and Dr. Alan Deidun: sessions with underwater documentaries.

During this event all art work, models and research conducted by Gozitan students in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and related subjects is being displayed at the Ministry for Gozo.

Gozitan Students have been able to visit the exhibition since the opening yesterday and it will be open for the public on Friday, the 28th of March, from 2.00pm and 8.00pm.

The Minister for Gozo Dr Anton Refalo visited the festival and expressed his satisfaction that this first Science festival had been organised in Gozo, and congratulated the Gozitan students for their passion and commitment in entering the competition and welcomed the large number of participants as well as visitors.

He also spoke on the importance of the field of study in science in contributing to the economic development of Gozo.

Some of today’s other visitors to ‘Science Days in Gozo’ included the Minister for Education and Employment, Dr Evarist Bartolo, the Parliamentary Secretary for Rights of Persons with Disability and Active Ageing, Dr Franco Mercieca and The Mayor of Qala and MEP candidate, Clint Camilleri, among others.

Prizes will be given to all the winners in an Awards Ceremony which will be held on Friday at the Ministry for Gozo, starting at 6.00pm.

The competitions and prizes are:

Science Art Contest (years 1-3) A science book will be awarded for the best entry from each school.

Primary School Contest for Young Scientists (years 4-6) The participants of the winning project will be awarded a science educational instrument.

School Contest for Young Scientists (Forms 1-5) Students and teacher will go abroad on a science tour.

Contest for Young Scientists (sixth form and post sec colleges including MCAST) Winners will participate in the EU Contest for Young Scientists taking place in Warsaw.

Science Photo Contest (all ages) A camera will be awarded to the best entry from Gozo.

NSTF-Science is a series of educational programmes run by the National Student Travel Foundation on a philanthropic basis to popularise science and generate awareness and interest among students at all education levels (primary, secondary, post-secondary and tertiary levels) of the nation in the importance of science and scientific research to one’s daily life and to experience and promote science out of the classroom through hands-on projects, exhibitions, experimentation, research and discussion from both a scientific and ethical perspective.”

NSTF is a member of MILSET (Mouvement International pour le Loisir Scientifique et Technique), the International Movement for Leisure Activities in Science and Technology.

NSTF is also a partner of the Google Science Fair, an online science competition, open to students between the ages of 13 and 18 from around the world.

For more information please visit www.nstfmalta.eu, or visit the facebook page, or email science@nstfmalta.eu.

Photographs by Alain Salvary

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