Hansel and Gretel - Christmas show lecture by the Chemistry department.
The Children's Academy is an important instrument of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences to give children between the ages of eight and twelve an insight into various scientific disciplines. The Chemistry department of the Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences makes an annual pre-Christmas contribution to this. Interesting chemistry experiments are presented to the audience, which are integrated into an exciting storyline and acted out.
This year, the graduate chemist and head of the laboratory for general and inorganic chemistry, Matthias Jeschke, swapped his lab coat for a fairytale storyteller outfit. On December 8, 2017, he told the Christmas-themed fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel to an eager audience in the Audimax Zittau. He was supported by laboratory employee Florian Prasse.
The story was well known to the guests and is quickly told. Hansel and Gretel, the children of a poor woodcutter (Alexander Fürll), wanted to celebrate a peaceful Christmas. But the wicked stepmother (Ludwig Gabler) wanted to get rid of the children. And so the two of them ended up on their own in the depths of the forest. Hansel, played by Lukas Ortmüller, defied all dangers with chemical ingenuity and protected his little sister. The role of Gretel was played by children from the audience. Even the evil witch (Ludwig Gabler) could not harm the children and so the father and his two children ultimately celebrated a wonderful Christmas. The 200 or so children in the auditorium naturally joined in the celebrations and were enthusiastic and interested. In some experiments, they were even allowed to slip into lab coats themselves and take part in the experiments. And last but not least, each child received a small gift from Santa Claus (Leon Müller).
The experiments for this somewhat different kind of lecture are tried out, prepared and carried out by students on the Bachelor's degree course in Chemistry. A big thank you for the performance this year goes to Christiane Mieting, Alexander Fürll, Ludwig Gabler, Erik Müller, Leon Müller and Lukas Ortmüller.
The Chemistry Department would like to thank all the children and supervisors for their great interest in the event, the Friends of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences for their financial support and is already looking forward to the next Christmas show lecture for the Children's Academy.