Fairytale Kinder Academy

The Kinder Academy is an important program at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences designed to give children ages eight to 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 effort. During the event, the audience is treated to interesting chemistry demonstrations, which are woven into an exciting narrative and presented in a theatrical manner.

This year, Matthias Jeschke, a graduate chemist and laboratory director for General and Inorganic Chemistry, swapped his lab coat for a fairy-tale-inspired storyteller’s outfit. On December 8, 2017, he told the eager audience in the Audimax Zittau the Christmas-themed fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel. He was assisted by lab technician Florian Praße.

The guests were very good at telling the story, which is told quite quickly. Hansel and Gretel, the children of a poor woodcutter (Alexander Fürll), wanted to celebrate a peaceful Christmas. But their wicked stepmother (Ludwig Gabler) wanted to get rid of the children. And so it came to pass that the two were ultimately left to fend for themselves in the depths of the forest. Hansel, played by Lukas Ortmüller, however, defied all dangers with chemical ingenuity and protected his little sister. The role of Gretel was taken on by children from the audience. Even the wicked witch (Ludwig Gabler) couldn’t harm the children, and so the father ultimately celebrated a wonderful Christmas with his two children. The approximately 200 children in the lecture hall 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 themselves and help out. And it was good, too, that 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 big thank you goes out this year to the following for making the event possible: Christiane Mieting, Alexander Fürll, Ludwig Gabler, Erik Müller, Leon Müller, and Lukas Ortmüller.

The chemistry department thanks all the children and their chaperones 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 demonstration lecture for the Kinder Academy.