Christmas show lecture at the Kinder Academy

The Kinder Academy at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences offers children ages eight to twelve an exciting glimpse into various scientific disciplines. The Chemistry Department of the Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences contributes to this event every year in the run-up to Christmas. The audience is treated to interesting demonstrations of chemistry—integrated into an exciting narrative and presented in a theatrical manner.

This year, too, Matthias Jeschke—a graduate chemist and laboratory director for General and Inorganic Chemistry—traded his lab coat for a Santa Claus costume. On December 2, 2016, he told the Christmas tale of Rudolph the reindeer with the red nose.

The story is good, but it was given a fresh twist here. Rudolph the reindeer (Lukas Ortmüller) is mocked by the other reindeer because of his flashing red nose. His greatest wish, however, is to be the reindeer that gets to pull Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve. After a whole host of colorful, smoky, and thoroughly impressive demonstration experiments, Rudolph’s dream came true when he defeated the evil Ice Queen (Ludwig Gabler), saved Christmas, and ensured that the children received their gifts on time. The approximately 60 children in the lecture hall were thrilled and engaged, with some even participating in the play and, during certain experiments, getting to try things out for themselves.

The experiments for this somewhat unconventional lecture are devised, prepared, and conducted by students in the Bachelor’s program in chemistry. A big thank you goes out this year to the following for the performance: Loreen Alshaabi, Anne Leidenroth, Ludwig Gabler, and Lukas Ortmüller!

The chemistry department thanks all the children and their chaperones for their great interest in the event and is already looking forward to the next Christmas-themed demonstration lecture for the Kinder Academy.