How do you get young people interested in technology early on? While they’re still at school is probably the best way. And that’s just what the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1232 called “Colored States” is now trying to do in cooperation with the Wilhelm-Focke Oberschule in the Bremen suburb of Horn. “Our high school prides itself on providing students with a good preparation life after school, and the sciences and engineering represent career fields with excellent prospects”, explains Beata Warszewik, high-school teacher at the Wilhelm-Focke Oberschule. Therefore, the school is in the process of further intensifying its focus on science-related subject areas in partnership with CRC 1232. The coming summer will see the start of a research-based class especially set up with this in mind. It will comprise fifty-fifty girls and boys. Funding up to 2020 has already been granted for the subproject as well as for the CRC.
High-school teachers and University researchers join forces to develop project classes
Over the past six months, teams of high-school teachers and University researchers from the University have worked together on the design and content of these future classes. They have come up with a diverse program to be taught in two project hours a week. The contents link in with the subject matter of the high-school curriculum and lead participants into the world of materials sciences, related mathematics and IT. “The group will cover topics like the recycling of metals and how the history of civilizations has been impacted by materials. The high-school students will also have a chance to produce a video”, says Professor Lutz Mädler, spokesperson for CRC 1232 and project initiator. “Our graduate students contribute their expertise and learn how to present complex scientific contents in a way that can be easily understood and at the same time sharpen young people’s appetite for research.”
Researching things arouses interest in technology
The contents, though, are not the only purpose of this new form of cooperation. A further focus of the project classes lies on arousing participants’ interest in their everyday surroundings and motivating them to invent, create or shape things themselves. “Understanding the objects around you has much to do with practical experience”, says high-school teacher Katrin Börger, project coordinator on the school side. “Active engagement with a topic sparks curiosity and enthusiasm.” With this in mind, therefore, students’ personal initiative and inventiveness will further be fostered through participation in the youth science competition “jugend-forscht”.
Kick-off event in the Wilhelm-Focke Oberschule
The project was launched with a kick-off event held on January 12, 2017. Special guests were Bremen’s Senator for Science, Health, and Consumer Protection, Professor Eva Quante-Brandt, and the Senator for Children and Education, Dr. Claudia Bogedan. The students of Wilhelm-Focke Oberschule who participated in the pilot project called “Materials Detectives” at the University of Bremen in the spring of 2016 put on a colorful supporting program. They performed a number of experiments and drew attention to some fascinating facts taken from the fields of chemistry and physics.