SUMMER SCIENCE IN OUTOKUMPU OYJ

It seemed like it was going to be a perfect fooling-around-day. No rest for the weary, though the summer vacation had started only a week ago, but we had the honour and privilege to wake up at 7 a. m. and zoom through the city. Not to our usual senior high school. Our destination was Outokumpu's premises in the eastern fringe of Pori.

It is a well-known fact, at least here in Pori, that our senior high school, PSYL, is natural science-oriented in its curriculum. Annually, some twenty students are approved to join the venerable group of natural scientists. The chosen few have special scientific courses of their own, concentrating on experiments and expe-ditions. Of course, they study the normal theoretical courses in physics, chemistry and biology, too.

Cooperation with the industry has given birth to many fruitful teamwork projects, including the ones with Outokumpu-group. In particular, the summer course was organized by Outokumpu Research Oy (ORC) which, as the name suggests, is a research institute working for the benefit of the whole Outokumpu-group. This collaboration is quite valuable, for Outokumpu is not only the major employer in Pori, but also a corporation of international magnitude. Thus it was able to provide us with resources unavailable to our school itself.

Thirteen hard-working senior high school students of PSYL took part in the course. Although it was mainly intended for second-year students, the majority of participants had yet to experience their second year of studying. In addition, the group included a few "non-scientists", who also wished to gain some extra knowledge of physics and chemistry. All the time during the week we had the opportunity to work among the full-time workers of the ORC so we weren't left on our own.

The general idea of the course was to simulate the refining process of nickel. This was done in the very laboratories where the actual research takes place. The tests included were small-scale models of real processes and pieces of equipment used in Outokumpu Harjavalta Metals Oy. During the process we ground, strained, dissolved and analysed a nickel-rich stone substance. In other words, we started from ore and ended up having rather pure nickel, just like in the real process.

On the final day the assessment and assignment reports were given. Writing one is by no means a piece of cake, but fortunately we had already had some experience with them. The Outokumpu staff as well as the students and their teachers were very satisfied with the results of the course and are eager to carry on the tradition.

This is how Jenny Pyykkönen, one of the participants, felt after an extra oneweek session of studying: "At first, I just went along out of curiosity. By Friday, though, I had found the course to be very educating." The friendly staff and the food in Outokumpu were also very well-liked. In a nutshell, the practicality of the course was like a fresh spring breeze compared to the usual senior high school, in which the studies are often pretty isolated from the working life. We bet none of the participants would really have preferred fooling around.