During the first half of October, José Echegaray School and the ICMAB celebrated the beginning of the final year of their collaboration. As at the start of every school year, a new theme is introduced for the partnership. This time, it was “Materials That Change the World”. Following “The Many Forms of Carbon”, “Bioinspiration” and “The Materials in Toys”, this year the school’s pupils have chosen a theme inspired by the transformative power of materials, something they have been able to experience first-hand over the past few years.
European Researchers' Night at the Martorell Cultural Centre
This year, the school’s students took centre stage throughout the event. The opening presentation, usually given by an ICMAB researcher, was delivered this time by 5th and 6th school year pupils, accompanied by Anna Crespi and Anna Drou.
Students during the workshops
The older ones were also responsible for showing their fellow primary school students around and guiding them through two workshops. Judith Oró, Xavi Campos and Roberta Ceravola, together with the teachers, provided adult supervision at the different hands-on experiment stations.
Spherifications and ferrofluid demonstrations
In the first workshop, the students created spherifications, which they then guided through the circulatory system depicted in an image of the human body. Through this activity, they considered which organ they wanted to target and which route they needed to follow to reach it using targeted medical treatments.
In the second workshop, the pupils recreated a small ocean on a plate and added microplastics to it. Then, using tiny iron particles and oil moved by a magnet, they were able to capture the microplastics. However, there was also a limit to the amount of microplastics they could remove. It was an innovative method (and material) for reducing microplastics, but one that cannot solve the problem on its own. Broader discussions about sustainability are also needed, and the students engaged in these too.
Students exhibition and take-home packs to experiment
Finally, the students put together an exhibition showcasing some of the projects they had worked on over the previous years. They also prepared packs containing materials and instruction sheets so that anyone who stopped by could become a researcher by carrying out small experiments, just as they had done when they first started!
The Materials That Transform The World experimenters' on TV
The culmination of all this hard work also made it onto television. Reporters from InfoK visited José Echegaray School to see the pupils carrying out the spherification experiment and making conductive playdough. The short report shows how, after several years of working together, the children have developed a passion for science, gaining an understanding of the profound role materials play in transforming the world and wanting to help shape their future through them.
"Materials que canvien el món" at the kids news programme InfoK
After all the excitement at the start of the school year, the school is getting back to work. The pupils will now have to decide on their class names, choose research questions and use the scientific method to carry out experiments and find answers that will lead them to ask new questions. These three years of working with the scientific method have enabled the school — thanks to the tremendous efforts of its teachers — to develop the ability to carry out the research process independently.
We will see what the results are in a year’s time. ICMAB researchers will continue to support the school throughout the year while also working to develop materials that will change the world.
More information about the MAGNET project
Materials que canvien el món a l'InfoK (SX3, October 2026)
A March full of very young visitors: José Echegaray students visit ICMAB (ICMAB, March 2026)
Vibrem amb la ciència, materialitzem el futur (Magnet, 2025)
Second year of the MAGNET program: Bioinspiration and a consolidated relationship (ICMAB, July 2025)
Nature inspires science, a collaboration by ICMAB and Escola José Echegaray (ICMAB, January 2025)
ICMAB celebrates the European Researchers' Night with the José Echegaray School in Martorell (ICMAB, October 2024)
L'escola José Echegaray de Martorell presenta el programa MAGNET, en aliança amb l'ICMAB-CSIC, amb l'objectiu de promoure la ciència entre l'alumnat (ICMAB, January 2024)
The students of the José Echegaray School interview the Chemistry Nobel Laureate Sir Fraser Stoddart (ICMAB, June 2023)
