Guided tours at the Materials Science Institute of Madrid are back

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What is an optical effect microscope? And an SEM microscope? Wait, wait, is there more than one type of microscope? But is there more than one type of laboratory? The answer to these two questions is an exciting 'yes': there are as many types of laboratories as there are types of research, and many of them are at the Institute of Materials Science in Madrid, where Physics, Chemistry, Engineering or even Biology personnel work hand to hand.

Visiting the laboratories of an actual research center and having researchers explain how they are used is a dream not within everyone's reach. For this reason, the ICMM launched educational visits years ago, in which Baccalaureate students can see first-hand what we work on at this center, the largest in the materials science area of ​​the entire CSIC.

After a break due to the pandemic caused by the coronavirus, this 2022/2023 academic year school visits return almost normally on the last Friday of each month. The activity, totally free, offers students about to start their university career the opportunity to meet 'real' scientists. For this year, Eva García Frutos and Margarita Darder, the coordinators of the activity, have notified centers that have been on the waiting list since 2019. However, in February 2023 registration will open again so that new institutes and colleges can go through the ICMM already in the 2023/2024 academic year.

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Program of the visit

The duration of the visit is about two hours. Centers are usually asked to arrive around 9:45 in order to start at 10:00 with a short introductory talk by ICMM Deputy Director Jesús Ricote. At 10:30 a.m., in the same assembly hall, a superconductivity workshop is held, where not only the knowledge of the students is put to the test, but also their capacity for surprise.

It is already 11.00 when the visits to the laboratories start. As they are susceptible places, the students and their teachers are divided into groups of about seven people, and they go to visit the different laboratories according to the themes. There they will meet scientists who will explain how their machines work and how they work on a day-to-day basis at the institute.

There are different routes, which can be consulted on this page, where spaces can also be reserved for the next course.

-- Text and pics: Ángela R. Bonachera / ICMM Comunication --