The University of South Bohemia comes alive with the Night of Science: a hundred stations linked by the theme of COMMUNICATION
The University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice is taking part in the Night of Science for the eighth time. The gates of the campus and other venues will open at 5 p.m. "Across the entire campus on Branišovská Street, at our faculties in the centre of České Budějovice and in Nové Hrady, we are opening more than 100 programmes and stations. This year, for the first time, the new Aula (Assembly Hall) of the University of South Bohemia will also come alive with the Night of Science; in addition to many interactive stops, we are preparing early-evening discussions with inspiring figures from our region in the main hall. All the stations, demonstrations, games, experiments and discussion blocks have been designed in connection with this year's central theme of the Night of Science, which is COMMUNICATION," says spokesperson Edita Kadlecová, inviting visitors into the academic spaces of the University of South Bohemia.
The Faculty of Economics will invite visitors on an interactive journey through the world of communication, economics and modern technologies. Children and adults alike will try out how to spot greenwashing, how to understand the language of money, emotions, pictograms or dialects, how to uncover the environmental footprint of everyday products, and how communication influences our economic, managerial and legal decisions. Virtual reality and entertaining tasks focused on cross-cultural communication will not be missing either.
The Faculty of Arts invites visitors to the programme of the Institute of Archaeology, which will show how we can understand people across the centuries. Communication is not just the spoken or written word. We also communicate through images, symbols, objects and the traces left behind by people in the past. Families with children can look forward to entertaining stations with demonstrations of everyday life in prehistory and the Middle Ages, the discovery of archaeological finds and other activities.
At the Faculty of Education, visitors young and old will explore what the power of communication lies in and how to communicate through emotions. They will also touch on the topics of artificial intelligence, physics, alchemy and the digital world. Here, too, the programme will be complemented by entertaining activities and games — and not just for children.
How do birds pass on information, and in what ways does their communication resemble ours? Visitors to the interactive station at the Faculty of Science will learn the basics of bird communication and discover the role that song and calls play in birds' lives. At another of the many stops, visitors can try the "Fake News Machine", which turns a tiered lecture hall into a giant network for transmitting information. Drop a ball into the maze of paper tubes and find out what hidden algorithms, surrounding noise or your own decisions do to information. Will the message reach its destination undistorted?
The hidden language of aquaponics can be deciphered during a tour of the aquaponics hall of the Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters, where fish, plants and bacteria communicate with one another non-stop. How does this invisible communication help plants defend themselves against pests? How do organisms warn each other of danger or call for help? At another station, a practical demonstration will show visitors how a crayfish asks a female out on a date.
The Faculty of Theology has prepared a Divine Quiz for visitors. In the style of a pub quiz, they can compete for valuable prizes — and treat themselves to purple candy floss.
The Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, which this year will present itself for the first time on the ground floor of the new University Aula, will develop the theme of Communication through the game Facts and Myths about Health. A new addition to the programme will be a session entitled Rehabilitation through Music Therapy, or The Healing Power of Music and Sound. Visitors will find out how musical and rhythmic stimuli can influence a person's motor, sensory, speech and communication abilities. Together with physiotherapist, musician and choral singer Marek Zeman, they will try out various techniques and exercises. They will learn what music therapy can do for neuroplasticity, attention, memory and emotions, and will find out something about the diaphragm, posture, breathing and vocal expression.
At the Faculty of Agriculture and Technology, a number of stations have been prepared to take visitors into the world of nature, agriculture, food and modern technologies. Visitors will learn how bees and other animals communicate with each other, how genetic information works, and what plants, the landscape and aquatic ecosystems can "tell" us.
In the Aula of the University of South Bohemia, discussions with interesting guests have been prepared for the general public for the first time this year. A police psychologist and an Emergency Medical Service dispatcher will talk about effective communication under stress and psychological support in crisis situations. Visitors will be able to discuss how mammals and plants talk to one another with a zookeeper and a biologist. The evening will then culminate in a discussion on communication in literature with South Bohemian writer Jiří Hájíček.
The complete programme of the University of South Bohemia is available HERE.
