March 4, 2023 – 6:32 PM
“One of the goals of the MTA program for high school graduates is to bring science, the values of scientific thinking, the world of research and its methodology closer to young people” – with these words Tamas Freund, President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences received the final teams of the Academy’s high school competition. 686 teams took part in the competition, and ten of them finally made it to the finals: in addition to four from Budapest, one each from Sopron, Szeged, Kecskemét, Gir and Gudulu, and one each from Nagynyd, Transylvania.
The main theme of the competition was climate change and sustainable development. “On the one hand, we were looking for an area that has a fundamental impact on the future of today’s high school students, and on the other hand, the power of evidence-based science can be clearly demonstrated,” said Tamas. Freund.
It was possible to prepare for the final mission in advance. The description was “Bring something from the year 2061 and tell us why it will be important in terms of climate change.” Teams had to present these—among other things, an artificially intelligent agricultural machine, a new type of battery, a system that gives an idea of the current state of forests, and an environmentally friendly air conditioner—in a presentation, and then the final ranking was decided by quiz questions.
The winner was the Trifolium team from the reformed Lyceum in Gödöllő, whose prize was a trip to the experimental power plant, ITER, being built in France. Students from Josef Eotvos High School in Szeged and Bányai Júlia High School in Kecskemét were also able to stand on the podium.
