At the end of the school year, Faculty N traditionally invites interested students to events at the HSZG.
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, Faculty N, together with other structural units, first welcomed the students Ms. Stefan from Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium Löbau and Ms. Rotzsche from Christian-Weiße-Gymnasium Zittau as part of a two-week student internship. The ninth graders were able to gain an insight into the course of lectures, seminars and internships at a university. The specialist chemistry camp for pupils from grammar schools in eastern Saxony in years 11 and 12 took place for the 17th time on June 13 and 14, 2018. A total of eleven students from grammar schools in Görlitz, Kamenz, Löbau, Radeberg, Seifhennersdorf and Weißwasser took part in this year's competition.
After the opening by Prof. Gerd Fischer, the participants followed a lecture on the topic of "Solubility of gypsum". They were then able to put the theoretical knowledge they had acquired into practice in a laboratory experiment and evaluate and discuss the results of the experiment with the HSZG experts. In the evening, the students enjoyed a pleasant meal in the "Cavallino" restaurant and then Jochen Kaminsky took them on an entertaining night watchman's tour of Zittau town center. The students 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 canteen. Afterwards, the students were given a brief insight into the topic of "Coloring with natural organic dyes" in the halls of organic chemistry. First, Prof. Greif gave an entertaining lecture on the question "What are natural fibers and how are natural dyes applied to the fibers?". Following this, the knowledge acquired was immediately put into practice in the Organic Chemistry Laboratory. Under the guidance of laboratory manager Ms. Kitzig, various fabrics (silk, wool, cotton, linen, jute) were dyed with a variety of natural dyes. After the dyed fabrics had dried, the dyeing results and quality were expertly examined. It turned out that silk and wool in particular produce excellent dyeings with natural dyes. At the end of the event, all participants received certificates and a small souvenir gift.
On June 26, this year's final round of the Chemistry Olympiad for year 9 students took place. This is prepared and carried out 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 ten best student teams, who were able to prevail 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, the team from Lessing-Gymnasium Kamenz was just ahead of the students from Bautzen and Zittau. In the end, however, all the students 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 the teams, a chemistry show lecture with numerous interesting experiments was held 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 the pupils were very interested and enjoyed the scientific work and 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 participating students, the participating staff of Faculty N and to Mr. Liebner from Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium Löbau, who, as every year, took over the organization of the events.
Report: Matthias Jeschke