Science Zone

Imagine you are building a school on a moon of Jupiter or a planet outside our Solar System. Just like Earth, these places can have different climates and environments—but they might also have extreme conditions like alien weather, quakes, or other unexpected challenges.

As the population grows, more families with children begin to live there. Now it’s your job to design a safe, smart, and sustainable school using mostly local materials. This school could also become a place where the whole community gathers for special events.

What does the building look like? What rooms does it need? Who would you want on your design and construction team? And how would you manage resources and people in such a unique environment?

Let’s create a design proposal for a school of the future!

In this science zone, students will learn what the field of engineering is and then work in groups to complete two fun engineering challenges.  First, you will have to build a bridge using only straws and pipe cleaners to span a 20 cm gap which will then be tested to see how much weight it can hold.  Second, you will be introduced to straw rockets which you will then build and test to hit a target 10 meters away. Communication and the engineering design thinking method will definitely help you win these challenges. The winner of this zone will be the team that has the best scores on these two challenges.  Do you have what it takes to problem solve and be the best engineer? Are you curious about what engineering is? Then this is the zone for you!

It is generally believed that the sense of smell is a kind of fuzzy sensation. But the olfaction itself plays indispensable roles in human life. The biggest reason why we do not pay attention to olfaction is that this system skips the recognition step in the brain and sends signals directly to the deep part of the brain. Because of such neuronal projection, olfactory senses play roles without inducing your recognition. We are able to catch hundreds of thousands of odorants. Pleasant flavors and fragrances bring about a comfortable state, while bad smells induce bad feelings and emotions.

In this workshop, first, you will receive a lecture regarding the molecular mechanisms of olfactory signal transduction and olfactory masking. Next, using several pleasant smells, you will try to create an elegant fragrance that can also mask an unpleasant odor. Through these activities, we believe that you will understand the fundamental mechanism of olfaction, and how you can use olfactory masking in your daily life.

What do you imagine when you hear about “electronic circuits”? Most of you may think that they are difficult, far from reality, and complicated like a maze. Actually, electronic circuits are being used in almost all products that support our daily lives, such as smart phones, TVs, cars, air conditioners, refrigerators, etc. Electronic circuits make many things possible to make our lives more convenient by calculating, sending data, turning lights on and off, etc. depending on the combination of various types of components and circuit paths. This time we'll try creating actual electric circuits using just a battery, LEDs, and a special marker that, its ink could easily become electric paths!

Have you ever taken a close look at a propeller? Propellers are used in a variety of applications, including airplanes, ships, electric fans, and wind turbines. Despite the different applications, they all share the same basic mechanism and purpose: rotating to push air or water. But they’re not just “spinning blades.” By adjusting the shape, angle, and number of blades, the strength and spread of the wind they generate can change significantly.

In this zone, participants will design their own original propellers. Will the blades be curved or straight? Should you increase or decrease the number of blades? Once their design is complete, participants will use a laser cutter to cut the blades out of acrylic sheets or wood, and then compete to see who can create the strongest wind.

Our world is overflowing with data. From social media and sports to science and medicine, data is shaping the way we understand problems and make decisions. The ability to analyze and interpret data, and to clearly communicate your findings, is becoming one of the most important skills in today’s society.

In this zone, you will step into the role of a data scientist. First, you will be introduced to the basics of data science: how to organize and explore a dataset, how to look for relationships between variables, and how to build simple models for prediction. Then, working in small international teams, you will tackle a given dataset and search for insights. Your challenge will be to ask good questions, discover meaningful patterns, and present your conclusions in a clear and creative way.

The workshop will end with a friendly competition based on clarity, creativity, and insight, where teams share their findings. No prior experience is required, just curiosity, teamwork, and a willingness to learn. Whether you are new to data science or already have some experience, this Zone will challenge you to think critically, work collaboratively, and discover the power of data to tell stories and solve problems.