Carla Padilla / Overwatch
[email protected] | Cove, BC
To promote scientific careers in young people who show interest in disciplines related to the behavior of the planet, the Cicese Department of Earth Sciences and the Mexican AC Geophysical Federation invite high school students from Baja California to participate in the XXV edition of the Earth Science Olympiad.
According to the information provided by Cicese, the Science Olympic Games will be held on April 28, with the slogan “And the apogee has spread virally”, motivated by false information published in the media to explain the low temperatures in February this year.
The above, after the days of February 2023 were colder than usual in Baja California, and to explain this phenomenon, false and inaccurate information about winters in other countries was circulated in the media.
Searching the Internet for “false aphelion Baja California” you will find a variety of journal articles where the topic is discussed; It seems that this disinformation started in Indonesia in 2022 and spread little by little around the world; Even NASA talked about it.
Whoever created this information used scientific language and deliberately mixed real data with false data, a context that prompted many people to share the news, which is why the apogee is also prevalent in Baja California.
This situation revealed that very little is known sociologically about how the seasons of the year and related natural phenomena work, prompting the apogee to be the subject of this edition of the competition.
Edition agenda
This edition’s agenda is a guide for participating students to learn about the role the sun’s rising plays in relation to the horizon on different key dates of the year.
For example, how Eratosthenes measured the Earth’s radius over 2,000 years ago using sunlight; The phenomenon responsible for the fact that there is a delay in the Earth’s warming, compared to the month in which it receives more radiation.
To participate in the Olympics, interested students must be enrolled in any of the high schools or high schools in Baja California, and obtain the advice of a teacher from their school.
In addition to taking a proficiency test in the Cicese Institutional Auditorium, participants will attend guided tours of the Earth Sciences Department’s laboratories.
The top three winners, as well as their counseling mentors, will receive attractive prizes.
Registration for the Olympiad, as well as the full agenda and grounds, can be found on the official website http://olimpiadas.uniongeofisicamexicana.org.mx .
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