Brazilian Health and Environment Olympiad opens registration

With the proposal to encourage young people to build knowledge and reflect critically and creatively on issues related to health and the environment in Brazil, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) opened this Tuesday (6th) registration for the 12th Olympics Brazilian Association of Health and Environment (Obsma). Educational institutions must complete the application on the Fiocruz website. There will be three production modalities for the works and each project must be entered in only one of them: Audiovisual Production, Text Production and Science Project. Professor Juana Nunes, director of the Department for the Popularization of Science, Technology and Scientific Education, of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), points out that the event aims to mobilize young people and schools to think about a sustainable country, discussing science foundations for sustainable development. Girl Today, Scientist Tomorrow One of Obsma’s highlights is the 3rd Girl Today, Scientist Tomorrow Award, which will select a work or project entered in the Olympics that has been developed by students and teachers. The award pays homage to female scientists and their professional careers in each edition. In this edition, the chosen one is Alda Lima Falcão. She served as an entomologist for decades. First by the National Malaria Service in Fortaleza, then in Belo Horizonte. Falcão worked on analyzes of sandflies, which are vectors of diseases such as leishmaniasis. “Based on this agenda, we want to mobilize girls so that they can engage, participate in science, because the MCTI wants more diversity in science, more girls and women, and reinvent our country by creating new technologies,” said Juana Nunes. To compete for the Girl Today, Scientist Tomorrow, just register normally for the Olympics and choose the option to participate in the award in the registration form. The work can meet any of the modalities. Launch At the opening of the ceremony, Fiocruz’s vice-president of Education, Information and Communication, Cristiani Vieira Machado, representing the foundation’s president, Mario Moreira, said that Obsma values ​​collective work. “It’s a different kind of Olympiad, since it’s not based solely on the logic of individual merit or the brilliance of students, but rather an Olympiad that works on the collective, works on the school as a whole and works with the teachers”. Obsma’s national coordinator, Cristina Araripe, highlighted that, in addition to the competition, the Olympics promotes other activities with students. “Paying a visit to the Fiocruz campus, seeing how we work on the issue of sustainability, and above all a visit to the vaccine factory, it is with this spirit of opening the doors to receive young students of basic education and their teachers, that we started this 12th edition”. At this Monday’s event, students had the opportunity to visit the Bio-Manguinhos-Fiocruz Vaccine Technological Complex, one of the largest production centers in Latin America, which guarantees self-sufficiency in essential vaccines for the basic immunization schedule of the Ministry of Health. Project The Brazilian Health and Environment Olympiad is aimed at students and teachers of basic education, from the 6th to the 9th grade of elementary school and high school, from public or private schools, through the registration of works related to health and the environment environment, linked to education and science and technology. The theme of the projects is freely chosen by the participants. Obsma takes place every two years and provides activities such as pedagogical workshops to update teachers and educational programs for students interested in pursuing scientific careers. The competition has the support of CNPq, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and teaching and research institutions. Further information can be accessed on the Obsma website. * Intern under the supervision of Akemi Nitahara

Agência Brasil