Ten thousand people - including 1,500 schoolchildren - in three days, that's the outcome of the 2024 edition of the Festival des Sciences de Marseille (one of the events of the 'Fête de la Science') held on the Place Villeneuve-Bargemon, near the Old Port, and coordinated by the association Les Petits Débrouillards PACA. The IMBE was there with the Observatoire Des Saisons Provence stand, run by Elisabeth Holtzer, assisted by Sophie Gachet (POPCO team) and Clémentine Baccati (PhD student in pharmacognosy with an interest in scientific mediation, ECOSOM team). Various activities provided an opportunity to talk about phenology, climate change and the interdependence of living beings.
Avignon was not to be outdone: once again this year, more than 1,300 pupils were welcomed to the UFR Sciences premises over two days! The children learned, discussed and questioned each other in 24 workshops, a conference, two exhibitions and a scientific drawing competition on the theme of biodiversity. The IMBE was represented by Joffrey Moiroux (EECAR team) with a workshop entitled "Understanding evolution to understand biodiversity". The event, coordinated by the Maison de la Recherche and Hugues Soumille (EECAR team), was rewarded by the sparkling looks on the children's faces, which our colleagues may well have helped to inspire.
During this period, IMBE researchers and teacher-researchers, such as Isabelle Biégala (BEEM team), also answered a child's question every day, published in the journal La Marseillaise.
Everyone's looking forward to 2025!
