The gist: Students at Victor Hugo College in Lavelanet are leading a project to build a solar system in the city.
At the Victor Hugo College in Lavelanet, around twenty student volunteers of all levels, from sixth to third year, are fascinated and even passionate about the project “Lavelanet scale model of the solar system”. This project is part of the Space Club and the Maths au Carré Club and is led by two teachers, Stéphanie Nattes and Audric Durand. The workshops follow one another, the project progresses both in its objective and in its success criteria, making concrete use of the mathematics program through the astronomy theme.
The sun in the multisport center
At each workshop, the creation of the model takes shape, 3.5 km around Lavelanet, as well as that of the explanatory supports, knowing that the sun, just over a meter in diameter on the Lavelanet scale, will be installed on the multisport Center. “From then on, it is a question of installing each planet of the solar system in the city, taking into account in the most precise way the orientation and the distances in the form of an explanatory panel, the identity of the planet, its characteristics, as well as the project and much more QR code” , say the teachers. At each workshop, the students are asked a puzzle, such as the one to find the location of Proxima du Centaure, knowing that the earth at Lavelanet’s scale is 1 cm. Or that of Mars, which should “fall” near the entrance to the Greenway, exactly 177.7 meters from the Sun. Other planets will find their place very close to representative places of the city such as the town hall, its park, the war memorial, the Jacquard multipurpose high school, etc. The project consists in determining the sizes but also the design of the planets used for the materials and explanatory material. These must be produced in Lavelanet by the Noisetier printers.
In May, teachers and students visited the Sabarat astronomical observatory. On Thursday, June 1st, the college students will present their project in Toulouse. After visiting the Jolimont Observatory, they will go to the Higher Aerospace Institute (Isae) to defend their project. In 180 seconds, the oral hearing decides for two students.