As the school year draws to a close, the Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences traditionally invites interested pupils to various events at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences.
This year, the Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences welcomed three pupils from Christian-Weise-Gymnasium Zittau as part of a two-week internship. The tenth graders were able to gain an insight into the various internships at a university. Whether biological, chemical or biotechnological - the participants were given a thematically diverse overview of the content and working methods in the laboratories and in the field.
Many thanks to everyone involved!
The 19th "Chemistry specialist camp for year 11 pupils from grammar schools in eastern Saxony" took place on June 29 and 30, 2022. A total of eight students from the grammar schools in Hoyerswerda, Löbau and Zittau responded to this year's invitation.
After the opening by Prof. Gerd Fischer, the participants followed a lecture on the topic of "Solubility of gypsum". They were then able to apply the theoretical knowledge they had acquired in a practical laboratory experiment led by Matthias Jeschke and finally evaluate and discuss the results of the experiment.
In the evening, they enjoyed a pleasant meal in the "Franko" restaurant, followed by Jochen Kaminsky's entertaining night watchman tour of Zittau's city center. They spent the night in modern dormitory rooms, which were kindly provided by the Studentenwerk Dresden.
The second day started with a hearty breakfast in the "Kraatschn" canteen. Afterwards, the students were given a brief insight into the representation of fluorescein in the halls of organic chemistry.
After a short lecture by Prof. Jan Mollitor on this topic, the acquired knowledge was directly put into practice in the laboratory under the guidance of Maria Riemer. At the end of the event, all participants received certificates and a small souvenir gift.
On July 12, 2022, this year's final competition in the chemistry performance comparison of grades 9 (Chemistry Olympiad) took place. This is prepared and held every year in cooperation with the State Office for Schools and Education (Bautzen site) and the Chemistry Department of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences.
The six best teams of pupils, who were able to assert themselves in the first stage of the performance comparison in the grammar schools, competed for the best possible ranking in chemical calculations and experimental tasks in the laboratory.
In the end, a team from Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium Löbau narrowly came out on top against the students from Friedrich-Schleiermacher-Gymnasium Niesky and the second team from Löbau. Ultimately, however, all participants could feel like winners, because the joy of scientific work and experimentation was always in the foreground.
After the award ceremony and presentation of prizes to all teams, an entertaining chemistry showcase lecture with numerous interesting experiments took place for the pupils and guests. The chemical background of the experiments was also explained to the audience.
The conclusion of the student events was very positive. All of the pupils showed great interest and enjoyed working in the natural sciences and conducting chemical experiments.
In addition to the State Office for Schools and Education, the events were supported by the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), the German Chemical Society (GDCh) and Cornelsen-Verlag.
Many thanks go to all the participating students, the staff involved from the Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences and to Frank Liebner and Kristin Müller from Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium Löbau, who - as in previous years - took on the organization of the performance comparison and the specialist camp.
