This winter, Arctic Frontiers in collaboration with Nordnorsk Vitensenter have hosted the 2026 Poster Party and Student Conference with kindergarteners, schoolchildren and teachers all over Tromsø. Science for kids and science for schools.
On January 23rd, the 2026 Poster Party invited kindergarteners to an amazing day of science. Guided by the kindergarten staff, the children have gone into the field and looked into questions such as “Why can we find crabs at low tide, but not high tide?” and “Why do boats float on water?” The result was science posters showcasing the children and staff’s hard work, and above all else their curiosity in learning more about the world around them.
The following week, we kicked off the 2026 Student Conference. Spread over three days, the pupils joined a series of expert talks held by researchers at UiT, attended a science show, and presented their own science posters in front of a jury – the result of months of hard work at their schools. In total, 23 groups of pupils presented posters which looked at topics including ocean acidification, genome editing, overtourism in the Arctic and many other research questions within Arctic science.
The winning groups were invited to attend two science activities the following week: visiting the Akvaplan-niva FISK research station on Kvaløya, where they got to see world-leading aquatic research in practice; and presenting their posters at the Arctic Frontiers 2026 Poster Session. The pupils eagerly showed off their contributions to the other Arctic scientists and attendees at the conference.
We are very pleased with yet another successful year of the Science for Kids and Science for Schools program – bringing scientific curiosity and knowledge about Arctic science to kindergarteners and schoolchildren in Tromsø. We are grateful to Nordnorsk Vitensenter, Skolelaboratoriet UiT and CAP-SHARE for the excellent collaboration; to Akvaplan-niva for hosting the pupils at the FISK station; to all the expert scientists who have contributed; and, of course, to the schools, kindergartens, teachers, staff, pupils and children who participate in the program.
The Arctic Frontiers Science for Kids and Science for Schools programs are graciously funded by SpareBank1 Nord-Norge through Samfunnsløftet, and by Interreg Northern Periphery and Arctic‘s funding through the CAP-SHARE program.
