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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 26 FEBRUARY 2014 18 Events MSCT launches 'Little Scientists' project ON 24 February, the 'Little Scien- tists' project was launched by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando at MCST. MCST has signed a partner- ship agreement with the "Haus der kleinen Forscher" Foundation in Germany to carry out the project in Malta. In this initiative, MCST is collaborating with the Department of Curriculum Management, the Church Secretariat and the Private School sector to start implement- ing the project in kindergartens and primary schools. Training of sci- ence peripatetic teachers, together with Heads of Department from the Church and Private Sector will be carried out twice a year. These trainees will act as multipliers and subsequently train teachers in the research circle: questioning, pre- knowledge and assumptions, own experiments, observing, document- ing and reflecting. The project also seeks to certify classrooms/schools as being equipped for researching and experimenting together with children, becoming Little Scientists' Houses. The launch was well attended and was characterized by the happy faces of a group of children from the Kalkara Primary school who par- ticipated in the hands-on sessions at the end of the activity. The 'Little Scientists' project pro- vides an opportunity to lay out a common platform for inquiry-based learning in schools and seeks to make strong foundations in the pri- mary sector for this. This project arouses enthusiasm for phenomena in the natural sciences, promotes enquiring minds with regard to technical questions and contrib- utes to ensuring a follow-up genera- tion in the relevant professions on a long-term basis. 'Little Scientists' is a German ini- tiative which seeks to firmly link everyday encounters with natural science, mathematics and technol- ogy to everyday life at children's educational institutions. It is the largest qualifying initiative in the field of early education in Germany. The project targets early years and primary school-aged children and is based on an inquiry-based learning pedagogy. The project was launched by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando (right) on 24 February GO sponsors visit of world- leading scientist GO plc sponsored the recent visit to Malta of world-renowned physi- cist Professor Vlatko Vedral. Prof Vedral spoke about his work on quantum physics and how it applies to biology and technology at Malta Café Scientifique, at the University of Malta's Valletta Campus. Dr Edward Duca, who runs Café Scientifique, said, "Einstein himself dismissed the idea of changing an object without even touching it as "spooky action at a distance". But this idea is now a fact called quan- tum entanglement. Prof. Vedral's hypothesis is that as these quantum effects allow completely secure messages and super-fast comput- ers, that the fundamental entity is not energy or matter, but informa- tion. This hypothesis challenges our concepts of particles, time, de- terminism, and of reality itself." Professor Vedral is Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and at the Centre for Quantum Technologies at the National Uni- versity of Singapore. Vedral is also a Fellow of Wolfson College which is known for research of Quantum Information Theory and on the Theory of Entanglement. He has appeared on the Discovery Chan- nel's "Through the Wormhole", and has written articles in New Scien- tist and a book "Decoding Reality". Kurt Camilleri, Head of Market- ing at GO plc, said, "Prof Vedral's thoughts on information are both fascinating and challenging. His presentation on how our under- standing of the world around us is changing was certainly thought provoking. As a leader in technol- ogy and information services, GO has a keen interest in all areas of research and innovation that affect our understanding of information and we certainly learnt a lot from one of the world's leading physi- cists." More information on Malta Café Scientifique can be found on Face- book: http://www.facebook.com/ Malta.Cafe.Scientifique and on- line: http://bit.ly/MCSCIweb Winners of the Malta Sports Awards get financial grant through U*BET THROUGH one of its major games, U*BET, Maltco Lotteries pre- sented, for the very first time in the history of the Malta Sports Awards, a financial contribution to the five winners in the five major awards of the 53rd Edition of this event which took place earlier this year. Maltco Lotter- ies were also the main sponsors of this event. Whilst congratulating all of the winners for their achive- ments, Mr.Vasileios Kasiotakis, General Director of Maltco said that the company is looking forward to continue this joint venture with the Malta Sports Journalists Asso- ciation in order to promote and help dedicated athletes to pursue their career in sport. Kasiotakis said that the company admires and supports all the athletes' commitments, dedi- cation and sacrifices. He hoped that the financial support would give a helping hand to the athletes to work hard in achieving more positive re- sults in their respective fields. 'Receiving financial support from Maltco Lotteries for the winners of the National Sports Awards organ- ized by the Malta Sports Journal- ists Association is a guarantee that the Malta Sports Journalists Asso- ciation remains the leading figure which represents a specific role in sport society' , this was stressed by Mr. Charles Camenzuli President of the Malta Sports Journalists Asso- ciation during the presentation. Mr Camenzuli thanked Kasio- takis who together with Dr Ioannis Katakis, CEO of Maltco Lotteries Limited were instrumental for such initiative to take place The five winners receiving the financial grant were; William Chetcuti and Sue Abela, Sports- man and Sportswoman of the Year respectively, Karl Izzo and Nathan Lee Xuereb respectively chosen as Official of the Year and Promising Athlete of the Year as well as the Na- tional Waterpolo team, who won in the category of Team of the year. Prof. Vlatko Vedral spoke at the University of Malta's Valletta Campus earlier this month