Portugal - Aquihaselo – Science in Portugal

Aquihaselo
Issue Date: 2009/03/04



First Day Cover:

"Aquihaselo – MULTIPLICATION TABLE:
We are a group of 3rd-grade pupils from the EB1/JI Sá de Miranda School in Oeiras.
Last school year, when we were in the 2nd grade, we learned about the competition promoted by the Portuguese Postal Services, CTT, and we decided to participate with a topic which, at that time, was really testing us: the multiplication table.
In the beginning we found this mathematic content to be quite amusing, however, to some of the pupils in the class, committing it to memory was not an easy task.

Therefore we thought that creating a stamp around this theme might motivate our classmates and also help many children from other schools.

But how should we make the stamp?
Sometimes we sang a multiplication table song, but then a stamp doesn’t sing…
We wanted a stamp that was also a game… but how could we make a stamp into a game?
We put our heads together and dwelt on it, exchanged ideas, scribbled a few lines, drew, erased, sat down at the computer … and a stamp was born. All in a game of discovery, because math doesn’t have to be boring. And while we played the game we laughed, smiled, memorized and learned.
And because playing with numbers is also to learn, we encourage all children to play our stamp.
Do you want to guess?


Play the game and you may learn the multiplication table!


Aquihaselo – Science in Portugal:
The stamp created by Nuno Micaêlo, dedicated to the theme «Science in Portugal», arose from Nuno’s wish to divulge a scientific discovery made by Portuguese scientists, thus promoting national research and using a privileged communication support for the purpose.
The illustration on this stamp represents the active centre of an enzyme called CotA-lacase, which has been identified in the bacteria Bacillus subtilis; it has some very interesting features from the functional point of view, given its wide-ranging applications in the field of biotechnology. Besides its capacity to wear-down compounds produced during industrial processes, the so called highly pollutant phenols, this enzyme has a potential in bioremediation, in the formation of biopolymers (most commonly used in plastic manufacturing), in the processing of fruit juices, as biosensors, and in the wear-down of a vegetable fibre called lignin.
On the stamp, different atoms in the enzyme’s activity centre have been coloured; among these, the central orange atom stands out; it represents the copper atom that enables the enzyme to function. In its role as a cultural and social disseminator, the stamp this time discloses an important scientific discovery which, after all, can also be an artistic representation." in ctt