Sandra Myrna Díaz, joint 2019 Princess of Asturias Laureate for Technical and Scientific Research, will participate in the closing events of the extraordinary edition of the “Taking the Floor” cultural programme for schools

Joint 2019 Princess of Asturias Laureate for Technical and Scientific Research Sandra Myrna Díaz will participate in the closing events of the extraordinary edition of the “Taking the Floor” cultural programme for schools in the Principality of Asturias, extended for the first time to schools nationwide. 

This year’s programme was convened last November to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Her Royal Highness The Princess of Asturias as Honorary President of the institution and coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the launch of this project. The proposed activities are linked to the work of two Laureates who had already participated in this programme: namely Sandra Myrna Díaz; and Mary Beard, 2016 Princess of Asturias Laureate for Social Sciences, who also took part in this year’s events in February.

Walk through San Francisco Park and meeting with schoolchildren

As part of the programme, Sandra Myrna Díaz will meet with a delegation of teachers and students from schools in Asturias and other Spanish provinces who have participated in the activity inspired by her work, namely “Ready… Naturalists… Go!”.
The meeting will commence at 10:30am with a walk through San Francisco Park. This walk has been conceived as an exercise against “plant blindness”, since, although the park is much used by the public at large, its plant species are not well known by users. Accompanied by Sandra Myrna Díaz, teachers and pupils will stop at different points along the route to hear explanations about some noteworthy species.

At the end of the walk, the Laureate will meet with pupils and teachers from the participating schools at 11:30am at the Dulce Nombre de Jesús School. Chaired by Marlén López, co-founder of Laboratorio Biomimético and director of its Education and Scientific Outreach Department, this event will be attended by pupils and teachers from schools in Asturias, Lucena (Córdoba) and Alcantarilla (Murcia).

The Foundation suggested that students should watch the Laureate’s talk: “Of Plants and Peoples: Plant Biodiversity and its Links with Human Beings, as part of the “Ready… Naturalists… Go!” proposal. They were then invited to explore the theme of plant biodiversity and express it in a free-format research project from which they then had to present a conclusion or something they had learnt about the presence of different varieties of plant species on the planet or present-day society’s relationship with them. This activity was participated in by 307 students from 17 schools in Asturias, Soria, Murcia and Córdoba and 84 projects were received, mostly on plant blindness, invasive plants, endangered plants, the history of spices and the relational value with vegetation. 

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting point for the media will be the entrance to San Francisco Park on Calle Conde de Toreno (near no. 4 of said street).

Meeting with university students

The following day, Thursday 13th March, Sandra Myrna Díaz will take part in a discussion with students of Biology and other scientific disciplines, which will commence at 12 noon at the University of Oviedo Faculty of Biology. The event will be chaired by Daniel García, Full Professor of Ecology at said faculty. At the end of the event, the Laureate will plant a native laurel tree in the faculty garden. 

Taking the Floor

The goal of the “Taking the Floor” cultural programme for schools in the Principality of Asturias is to bring the work and careers of the recipients of Princess of Asturias Awards into the classroom. Since its launch in 2015, this programme has boasted 55 700 participations by pupils from 259 schools in Asturias. In 2017, Her Majesty Queen Leticia held meetings at the El Quirinal state primary school (Avilés) and the Jerónimo González state secondary school (Sama de Langreo) with a delegation of teachers and pupils from the 74 schools that participated in the programme in 2016. The “Taking the Floor” programme was suspended in 2020 due to the public health situation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.