On June 28, when the children took over their school report, I and my colleague Karolína, as representatives of the InterBridge project, visited Sokolovská Elementary School in Liberec to award the best artworks on the theme of Bionics.
The art competition itself was the culmination of the Bionics event, which we organized for the 5.B and 6.B classes of Sokolovská Elementary School as part of the Czech-Saxon InterBridge project. I would like to remind you that the event started at our Institute for Nanomaterials with a lecture/workshop on bionics, during which the children had the opportunity to view biological specimens in the microscope and learn how technical creations are inspired by natural solutions. This was followed by an excursion to the botanical garden in Dresden, where we visited the bionic trail. Here, the children encountered plants that served as models for their drawings, and we also completed a bionics test together with German students and random visitors to the botanical garden.
The competition pictures were evaluated by the teachers of the Sokolovská elementary school and our professional team. I must admit that choosing the best works was very difficult because all the pictures were beautiful and imaginative. The children showed that they were very attentive in the lecture that they had great talent for observing nature and amazing imagination.
As the project leader, I did not miss the opportunity to personally present the awards for the best artworks on the theme of Bionics to the children. It was very pleasant for me to bring joy to several awarded children with gift vouchers for purchases at Alza worth 500 and 1000 CZK. To ensure that those who did not receive an award were not disappointed, both classes will also receive a group voucher to the Urban Jump Arena in Liberec after the summer holidays.
As I wrote in the previous report from the excursion to the botanical garden in Dresden, German participants were also involved in our event. They demonstrated their knowledge of bionics through a test and subsequently sent us their artworks. Perhaps the most beautiful were the pictures by Ursula Schmidt and Heiderose Schlutte from Dresden, although their artworks were not focused on bionics but on the beauties of nature.
Many of the drawings created during this event were so successful and creative that I can imagine them as illustrations in a book of fairy tales, poetry, or sci-fi stories. This inspired us to consider creating such a book with illustrations. But we will think about that further. In any case, all the pictures created by Czech and German participants of our event will be exhibited as part of our first traveling Czech-German exhibition focused on the first phase of the InterBridge project. Several students from class 9.B of ZŠ Sokolovská contributed to the artistic part of the event. Although their pictures were very interesting, we did not award prizes in this category because the 9th grade did not participate in the entire Bionics workshop. But we will include them in the exhibition.
Award-winning pictures:
**5th Grade**
1st place: Tomáš Veselý (Virus: alive and computer-based)
2nd place: Natálie Málková (Daisies in the machine)
3rd place: Felix Tichý (The Moon as inspiration for machines), Václav Pouzar (Flower-machine head)
**6th Grade **
1st place: Dorotea Fantová (Flowers creating a mechanical system)
2nd place: Dita Klatovská (Flower chandelier), Ema Hrubešová (A drop of water sliding down a clover leaf repelled by small cones and its use in the textile industry)
3rd place: Tomáš Bobok (Electric flower)
The whole event was a beautiful conclusion to the school year and our first project phase, showcasing how inspiring cross-border cooperation and the connection of science and art can be. We thank all participants for their amazing works and wish the children of Sokolovská Elementary School a wonderful summer holiday!
Hana Křížová
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