International School students win Science Prize

Students of the École Internationale de Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur are likely to know something about fusion energy. Half of them have parents who work for the ITER Organization and probably grew up thinking that words like divertor, tokamak, cryostat or vacuum vessel were part of everyday speech.

 

There is a world of difference, however, between "knowing something" about fusion and producing posters and a presentation capable of impressing the jury of a science festival—especially one presided by Bernard Bigot, CEA Administrator General and High Representative for the implementation of the ITER Project in France.

 

As challenging as it may appear, this is exactly what students of classe de première (11th grade) and of the European section S3 (7th grade) achieved last Friday at the 9th Science and Technology Festival in Marseille.

 

Their project featured a very detailed and professional presentation on ITER and Tore Supra and explained how fusion would fit into the energy mix of tomorrow.

 

The jury, composed of prominent scientists awarded them the first prize in the high school category...and a check for 300 euros.

 

Lycée Georges-Duby of Aix-en-Provence, the other international school in the Aix-Marseille académie; and Lycée Thiers in Marseille, one of the most prestigious high schools in the region, respectively won second and third prize.

 

One of the students' teachers was quoted in the regional daily La Provence as saying: "The questions asked by the jury were extremely difficult and precise. Some of them, I would have had a hard time answering..."