They delve into the history of Bremen’s “Soviet Republic“ in 1919, trace the development of the Bremen ports, and examine themes surrounding social justice in Bremen. No, not academics and historians but high-school students – so-called Bremen “town researchers”. Initiator of this Denkwerk project supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation is the Center of Didactics and Social Sciences (ZeDiS) at the University of Bremen. Together with its partner schools, ZeDis is giving young high-school students a taste of discovery and research-based learning. The final meeting of the first town-researcher congress will take place in the University on Wednesday 22nd June.

At the meeting high-school students will be able to present their research results in the form of posters, films and presentations. The event begins at 10 a.m. in the Senatssaal in building MZH on the University campus. The presentation of results by the project classes will start at 11.30 a.m.
This year approx. 200 high-school students are participating. They are organized in seven work groups in the 9th and 12th grades at the Gymnasium Horn, Wilhelm-Focke-Oberschule, Oberschule Ronzelenstraße, LGO Leibnizplatz-Delmestraße, the St. Johannis School and Oberschule Findorff. The young researchers have been investigating examples of basic democratic values they have found in their neighborhoods and the surrounding region.

In their school projects students examine how persons, institutions, discourse and civic projects have in different ways influenced local public opinion, decision making and happenings in the town of Bremen in the past, present and future. The objective is to awaken their interest in social topics. At the same time they are introduced to social scientific methods of research. Another two series of projects will follow after completion of this first project phase. The initiative is being funded for a three year period by the Robert Bosch Foundation.

You can find out more about Denkwerk projects under www.uni-bremen.de/zedis