section européenne Lycée VINCI à AMBOISE

                   COMMUNICATING WEIRD SCIENCE ...

 When we started the Comenius project, we were studying the Victorian era with the Euro 11^th graders – a period which turned out to be just appropriate in terms of science and of fiction.

So, we decided to make them encounter by working along with the physics teacher.

A group of students worked on the design of billboards listing and depicting the major scientific breakthroughs and innovations the 19^th century British society went through. Those panels were exhibited in the science amphi where  the performance took place on the day we hosted the Swedish, Belgian and French delegations.

As regards fiction, the British Gothic literature and its attempt to deal with both imagination and science gave us the choice to stage a play in which students would carry out experiments.

Frankenstein's mad desire to recreate life with human body parts and lightning as a source of power would definitely put the physics teacher in a tricky situation ! But, Stevenson's « Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde » would perfectly fit the project. At the end of the play, some students would be able to show and explain some magical effects with the potion that was to turn Dr Jekyll into Mr Hyde.

So, at the time we started staging the play, another group of students joined the physics teacher to start experimenting. First, an experiment named « Kind of Magic » in which the students turned a colourless liquid into a coloured one thanks to acid and alkaline solutions (it was to become Dr Jekyll'magic potion) and secondly an experiment used for the setting of the play which consisting in guiding a red laser ray in springing water.

At the end of the play, some students were able to explain the scientific procedures and that was it !

A kind of magic !