The Open Science project of The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic is financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.
Several ECP students joined the annual scientific internships within the Open Science project for secondary school students this academic year.
Since 2005, the Open Science project has offered gifted secondary school students the opportunity to engage in hands-on research. This is possible through scientific internships at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Its aim is to provide students with a meaningful introduction to real scientific work, inspire them to pursue higher education, and support their journey toward a future in scientific fields.
Involvement of ECP students
The following ECP students in Years 4 and 5 participated in the Open Science project at various institutes this year:
Esme Kálovcová (Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)
Anna Malygin (Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)
Marina Žiaranová (Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)
Gabriela Popiolkova (Institute of Philosophy, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)
Lucienne Erent (Institute of History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)
Anastasia Kulakovska (Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)
Alex H.(Institute of Archaeology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic).
Student Experience
Here is what Lucienne Erent from Year 4 says about her experience: For my Academy of Sciences internship, I am working with Dr. Vojtěch Kessler on the History of Everyday Life Database at the History Institute (Databáze dějin všedního dne DDVD, Historický ústav AV ČR). It contains hundreds of personal 20th and 21st century sources, mostly letters, diaries and photo albums. I was fascinated to find out that the majority of sources come from women, since traditionally more women kept diaries.
The team works on digitizing and classifying the collection so even the public can search it at https://ddvd.kpsys.cz/ or easily access sources in the institute’s reading room. Our intern group helps with scanning documents and cropping photos into the required format. The creative side of the internship is writing summaries for the sources, writing social media posts about different sources and preparing my own research project for the student conference this autumn. Every year the database team chooses a theme, like Christmas or Grandmothers or School Days, and then publishes a research book on that topic. This year, the theme is Sex and Love so my research is focused on intimate relationships in the communist era. I really enjoy the atmosphere of the institute and I’m obsessed with the old photographs. The concept that small details from home life and personal experience give insight into larger issues in history really appeals to me, which is why I applied for this internship.
More information about internships is available here
In November, the Academy will hold the Week of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. You can find out more here: www.tydenavcr.cz.