Benjamin Blümchen, Santa Claus and lots of chemistry

The Kinder Academy is an important program at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences designed to give children ages eight to twelve an introduction to various scientific disciplines. The Chemistry Department of the Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences contributes to this effort every year with a pre-Christmas event. During the event, the audience is treated to interesting chemistry demonstrations, which are woven into an exciting narrative and are usually presented in a theatrical manner.

This year, as is tradition, Matthias Jeschke—a chemist with a master’s degree and the lab director for General and Inorganic Chemistry—swapped his lab coat for a fairy-tale-inspired storyteller’s outfit. On December 20, 2019, he told the eager audience in the Audimax Zittau the pre-Christmas story of Benjamin Blümchen and Santa Claus.

The story was well known to the guests and is told quite quickly:

Otto can’t spend Christmas with Benjamin and Karla this year because he’s going on a ski vacation to Emmental with his parents. But he gets very bored there, so to pass the time, Otto goes sledding with two other children. While doing so, they’re caught in an avalanche and buried. Back at the zoo, Benjamin worries about his friend because he hasn’t heard from him and sets out to find him. Together with Santa Claus, his reindeer Rudolf, and Karla Kolumna, Otto is rescued, and “everyone was happy and content and celebrated Christmas together in Emmental.”

The approximately 70 children and guests in the auditorium naturally joined in the celebration and were enthusiastic and engaged throughout. During some of the experiments, they were even allowed to slip into lab coats and participate themselves, especially since the acting roles this year were filled exclusively by children from the audience. Last but not least, every child also received a small gift from Santa Claus (Leon Müller).

The experiments for this somewhat unconventional lecture are tested, prepared, and conducted by students in the Bachelor’s program in “chemistry.” A heartfelt thank you goes out this year to the following students for their great dedication: Loreen Alshaabi, Anton Köhler, Erik Müller, and Leon Müller.

The chemistry department thanks all the children and their chaperones for their great interest in the event, Frank Schneider and his Kinder Academy team for the good organization, the Friends of Zittau/Görlitz University Association, and the university administration for their financial support, and is already looking forward to the next Christmas-themed demonstration lecture for the Kinder Academy.

Report: Matthias Jeschke, Diplom Chemist (FH), Head of the General and Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory