Pupils from secondary schools and older classes of primary schools, students, university employees as well as entrepreneurs and the local community participated in the Sustainable Development Day - an event popularising science, whose main theme was water and its importance for life on the Planet.

Watercolour painting workshops, mini-lectures on what water is made of and how to manage it wisely, crosswords, wheel of fortune, spectacular chemical experiments, including the effect of burning hands, ozonation with phenolphthalein, artificial blood and its production - these and many other interesting facts could be found out during the third edition of Sustainable Development Days, which took place on October 15, at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Gdańsk.

- 'Contemporary academic education and R&D work carried out at universities is becoming increasingly important for the construction of a properly balanced socio-economic and natural environment. That is why I am very glad that more and more events at our university refer to the idea of sustainable development,' - says prof. dr hab. Piotr Stepnowski, Rector of the University of Gdańsk. - 'For this purpose, we have established at UG the Centre of Sustainable Development, which integrates all activities undertaken at our university in this field. This has already been recognised by international ranking lists, which assess the contribution of individual universities to the implementation of the so-called Sustainable Development Goals, in which UG ranks among the top Polish universities.'.

The motto of this year's Sustainable Development Day was 'Drop of H₂O = life on the Planet'.

- 'The event was held as part of the project "Science Club - Known and unknown faces of science". We wanted to introduce students of Tricity schools and business partners to the results of our research, processes, didactics, what we teach at the University - while trying to provide information in an interesting, understandable and accessible way. That is why the programme included so many workshops, games, shows and competitions,' - says dr hab. Barbara Pawłowska, prof. UG from the Faculty of Economics, the initiator of the Sustainable Development Day at UG. - 'There was a lot of interest, we hosted students from several primary and secondary schools from the Tricity, as well as business partners, including GIWK, the Polish Fair Trade Association and the Recycling Plant in Gdańsk.'.

The first part of the meeting consisted of lectures. The opening lecture entitled 'Ordinary and extraordinary water' was delivered by dr hab. Joanna Fac-Beneda, prof. UG, Faculty of Oceanography and Geography UG. Dr hab. Beata Majecka, prof. UG from the Faculty of Economics, talked about the economic view on water. Dr Aleksandra Bielicka-Giełdoń from the Faculty of Chemistry UG presented a lecture on the 'Assessment of water quality in relation to its purpose', and Katarzyna Cur from GIWK talked about microplastics in the Baltic Sea based on the results of an international project.

The second part of the programme consisted of workshops and competitions conducted by the UG scientific clubs and partners of the event. They were very popular with students, who eagerly participated in them, watched the demonstrations and experiments, but also took part in the competitions and were not afraid to ask questions. The atmosphere was extremely positive, and the whole meeting was a great opportunity to go beyond the rigid framework of the school curriculum.

At a stand on sustainable consumption, we could learn how not to waste food and to buy as much as we need.

- 'In today's consumerist world, a lot of food is wasted. We ran workshops on how to minimise this and, for example, use everyday objects using food to make toys such as rattles. For older children, we prepared various educational games about associations on sustainable consumption,' - said Julia Tetera from the WE Foreign Trade Scientific Club.

The Scientific Club of Environmental Protection, operating at the Faculty of Chemistry UG, presented three stands as part of the 'Water laboratory'. - 'At the first one we presented the purification of a water solution with carbon-based ink, the next stand was ozonation with phenolphthalein, to show how colour is removed from an aqua solution. At the last stand, we demonstrated the precipitation process. We also showed how artificial blood looks like and how to produce it,' - said Aneta Konke from the Scientific Club of Environmental Protection.

Students from the Chemical Business Scientific Club of the Faculty of Chemistry and the Faculty of Economics talked about water and its wise management.

- 'We gave mini-lectures about water, what it is made of and how to manage it wisely. We presented interesting experiments, e.g. the so-called locomotive, which is the reaction of potassium permanganate with hydrogen peroxide - it involves mixing oxidised water and potassium manganate. As a result of this exothermic reaction, i.e. one that releases heat, a large, spectacular cloud of oxygen is created, because oxygen is released in this reaction and it is the element that, together with hydrogen, makes water,' said Kewin Andrzejewski from the Scientific Circle of Chemical Business. - 'We also had a stand outside the building, where a colleague talked about surface tension, blowing bubbles with everyone who wanted to. We also demonstrated burning hands - we enclosed flammable gas - butane - in soap bubbles, set the butane on fire and produced a cool visual effect of burning hands.'.

There was also plenty of art. Those willing could take part in a watercolour painting workshop entitled 'Water - Painting Dialogues', led by dr Małgorzata Karczmarzyk from WNS UG.

- 'We painted one picture together. Someone painted something, someone else may have crossed it out or painted over - we react in different ways and then an interesting artwork is created, by chance, intuitive painting, reacting to each other. This is communication, energy flow, layers,' said dr Małgorzata Karczmarzyk. - 'I try to motivate people for art, I try to show it in a practical way. We can all create an artistic expression, it's not just for the few or the elite. We can all express ourselves through painting, thanks to it, the energy goes into creation. It's not about talent, it's about expressing yourself,' said the artist.

GIWK presented the results of its two-year international project implemented under the Interreg Microplastics in the Baltic Sea Program. The Polish Fair Trade Association - through an exhibition of its fair trade principles - educated students and the community about fair trade and its principles. The Recycling Plant, in turn, taught step by step how to segregate waste and what the principles of this segregation are.

The special guest of the meeting was Katarzyna Bosacka, a Polish press and TV journalist, author of programmes on health and cooking.

The event was held under the patronage of the Rector of the University of Gdańsk, prof. dr hab. Piotr Stepnowski, the Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry, dr hab. Beata Grobelna, prof. UG and the Dean of the Faculty of Economics, dr hab. Monika Bąk, prof. UG.