Finland's most curious class 2026

• To whom?

The competition is open to all classes in comprehensive schools in Finland. The entire class participates in the competition together, individual students cannot participate. The competition has two categories: primary schools and secondary schools. Competition questions can be submitted in Finnish, Swedish and English.

• What are we asking?
  

Each participating class sends two science-related questions to Heureka. The questions can be used to approach familiar things from new perspectives or turn familiar thinking patterns upside down. Insight and thinking outside the box are more important than who comes up with the most difficult question.

Questions must be developed together by the class and the result of shared reflections. Questions should demonstrate curiosity, ingenuity, and a desire to understand the world. An individual question can be short or long, but it must be well thought out.

After the competition period, an expert in the field will answer some of the questions in video format. Please note that unfortunately not all questions will be answered.

• How do I enter the competition?
  

Competition questions are submitted to Heureka via the form on the competition page. Questions can be in written in the form or sent as videos. If your question is a video, please only include a link to the video in the form. The teacher acts as the class contact person and ensures that the questions are student-generated.

• How can the competition be easily integrated into teaching?
  

Depending on the grade level, the questions can be discussed in environmental studies, biology, geography, physics or history classes, for example. The competition is also a great topic for multidisciplinary learning units. Arouse curiosity in your students and encourage them to, for example, familiarize themselves with Helsingin Sanomat's Children's Science Questions, watch Children's Science News or browse through various non-fiction and textbooks.

After this, the students can go into small groups and start to think about the questions they find interesting raised by the background material, and to look for answers to them. Small groups can also be given their own umbrella themes, from which they can start to think about questions. Such themes can be, for example, space, the ice age, climate change and evolution. Finally, the questions of the small groups are listed on the board/screen.

After this, the questions to be sent to the competition can be jointly selected through an internal class vote, or alternatively, questions to which the students were unable to find answers can be selected.

• Participation in the competition in a nutshell:
  

1. Arousing curiosity through non-fiction books, science questions, or children's news.
2. Discussion of interesting questions in small groups.
3. Searching for answers in pairs/small groups to previously created questions.
4. Selection of competition questions: Questions that could not be answered or that the class found most interesting are submitted to the competition.

• Schedule

The competition runs 12.1.–28.2.2026. During March, Heureka's jury will evaluate all questions submitted during the competition period and select the finalists and the categories deserving an honorable mention. The results will be announced at the end of March and the winning class of each series will be notified personally. The winning class will receive the title of “Finland’s Most Curious Category” and a certificate of honor, as well as a free visit to Heureka with transportation. The time and arrangements for the prize trip will be agreed with the contact person of the winner class. The mode of transportation will be agreed together with Heureka's contact person. The prize trip must take place before the end of the spring semester 2026.

• Evaluation criteria
  

Curiosity and creativity: How surprising and diverse are the questions?

Collaboration: Is it clear that the entire class has participated?

Insight: Do the questions demonstrate a desire to learn and understand?

The questions are evaluated by Heureka's experts from various fields.

• Privacy Statement

Participants' information will only be used in connection with the competition and will be processed in accordance with Heureka's privacy statement .

• Terms of use and permission to use the material
  

Heureka may publish questions submitted to the competition and raise the themes they present on the Finland's Most Curious Class competition page or on its own social media channels. Any publication of questions or use of parts of them on social media channels will take place after the competition question submission period has ended. The publication will be made without mentioning the names of individual students or teachers.