Award-winning high school students from the Brazilian Mapping Olympiad visit Simaden — National Natural Disaster Monitoring and Warning Center

A delegation of 12 high school students from the states of Ceara, Mato Grosso and Pará – winners of the Brazilian Olympiad Prize for Cartography – and 8 educators (including teachers in charge of the teams, as well as coordinators and the Technical Committee of the Olympiad). They visited, this Thursday (9), in São José dos Campos (SP), the National Center for Monitoring and Warning of Natural Disasters (Cemaden) – a research unit of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI).

The award-winning students of the Brazilian Cartographic Olympiad form teams of 4 students from three states: from the EEEP Maria José Medeiros School in Fortaleza (CE); From SESC, Cuiabá (MT) and the Federal Institute of Pará – Paraopebas Campus – Paraopebas (PA). Among the prizes is a visit by the finalists to scientific institutions related to the theme of the year.

These Olympic Games have been promoted by the Federal University of Fluminense (UFF), since 2015, within the National Scientific Publishing Project (MCTI/CNPq/UFF), coordinated by Professor Angelica Di Maio, from the UFF Institute of Geosciences. The theme of this year’s Brazilian Cartographic Olympiad was “Amazon on the Map”. “Within the theme of monitoring and climate change, Simaden was chosen for the educational technical visit,” says the project coordinator.

Coordinator Angelica de Mayo reported that the Brazilian Mapping Olympiad was attended by one thousand teachers and four thousand students this year, with several phases and phases of activities, which were implemented since May, until the 12 finalists were reached. “Mapping requires the participation of many specialists, as it brings together several sciences. The aim of the project is to involve high school students in thinking and perception of the world, to form citizens involved in solving social problems,” explains the coordinator. In addition to the use of technologies in schools, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) activities involve students, encourage solutions, and contribute to practical actions in the community.

Programming in Cemaden

Students and teachers visited the Simaden Operations Room, where technicians and experts in extreme meteorology and disasters, respectively, Caroline Mourao and Carla Prieto, presented the monitoring and warning system, addressing extreme weather events and disaster risks.

In the operations room, researcher Demerval Gonçalves spoke about the monitoring network in Simaden, and later, the delegation was able to learn about the equipment and its functions in hydro-geological meteorological monitoring, displayed in the outer area of ​​Simaden.

After visiting the operating room, the students and teachers went to the room located at the Estadual Paulista University (Unesp), next to Cemaden, in the São José dos Campos Technological Innovation Park. They were received by Professor Tatiana Susil Mendes, from the Environmental Engineering course, from the UNICEF Institute of Science and Technology.

Student teams presented their cartographic work on “Amazonia on the Map”.

Next, researcher and Simaden Education Program Coordinator, Rachel Tragber, presented the programme’s thematic activities for disaster risk prevention and reduction, developed in collaboration with schools, civil defence, universities and local communities in risk areas. Cemaden Educação team researcher, Deborah Olivato, presented the social mapping experiments used by the program.

In the morning, the delegation visited the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and after Simaden, they traveled to Rio Janeiro, where they will finish their activities at the Federal University of Fluminense.

The schedule for the visit to Simaden was prepared by Science and Technology Analyst, Selma Flores, from the Coordination of Institutional Relations.

Source: ASCOM/SEMADEN

Students who won prizes at the Brazilian Mapping Olympiad learn about the equipment of the Cemaden Surveillance Network

Simadine’s educational and social mapping program presented to award-winning students at the Brazilian Cartographic Olympiad

Visit of students and professors of the Brazilian Mapping Olympiad project to the Simaden operating room