Discovering Arts et Métiers kindergarten, working hard in preparatory classes to get in, and then committing to introducing science to schoolchildren: this is the journey of Felix Minnaert, a schoolboy who benefited from the "La Main à la Pâte" program at the Lille campus as a child and is now an engineering student Arts et Métiers.
"The Arts or nothing!" Felix Minnaert knew what he wanted. A student in the preparatory class at Gustave Eiffel High School in Armentières, this Lille native discovered Arts et Métiers 2006 while attending Les Moulins nursery school in Lille. He has few memories of that time, but thanks to a notebook he found in his parents' attic, the Arts et Métiers engineering student Arts et Métiers now Arts et Métiers on those experimental discovery sessions organized by Henri Fresko and led by engineering students. Black-and-white photos and children's drawings provide a glimpse into these introductory sessions on the scientific method. It was during a boat-building project, with all the concepts that this entailed, such as buoyancy and materials, that Felix was first introduced to scientific reasoning.
This year, the Arts et Métiers engineering student Arts et Métiers to return to his kindergarten, Les Moulins, with the same teacher, this time to serve as a scientific advisor for theLa Main à la Pâteprogram, run by the Lille campus. He will even serve as project manager. "I want to give something back to the children and help open their minds to science," explains Felix. Together with other student volunteers, he will encourage the schoolchildren to build a vehicle with the aim of winning a race. To do this, he will have to explain some complicated concepts to the children. "In the experimental approach we are proposing, we are not looking to provide ready-made solutions, but to give ideas and suggestions so that the schoolchildren can develop their imagination." This experiment is not so different from the empirical teaching provided in his Arts et Métiers engineering course Arts et Métiers
