The chemistry department delighted the audience with the Christmas story of Rudolph the reindeer.
The Children's Academy at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences gives children aged eight to twelve an exciting insight into various sciences. Every year, the Chemistry department of the Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences makes a pre-Christmas contribution to this. Interesting chemistry experiments are presented to the audience - integrated into an exciting storyline and presented in an theatrical way.
Once again this year, the graduate chemist and head of the laboratory for general and inorganic chemistry, Matthias Jeschke, swapped his lab coat for a Santa Claus costume. On December 2, 2016, he told the Christmas tale of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
The story is well known, but reinterpreted here. Rudolph the reindeer (Lukas Ortmüller) is mocked by the other reindeer because of his flashing red nose. But his greatest wish is to be the reindeer that gets to pull Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve. After lots of colorful, smoky and thoroughly impressive show experiments, Rudolph's dream came true when he overcame the evil Ice Queen (Ludwig Gabler), saved Christmas and the children were able to receive their presents on time. The 60 or so children in the auditorium were enthusiastic and interested, some were able to take part in the play and were even allowed to take part in some of the experiments themselves.
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 Loreen Alshaabi, Anne Leidenroth, Ludwig Gabler and Lukas Ortmüller!
The Chemistry department would like to thank all the children and supervisors for their great interest in the event and is already looking forward to the next Christmas show lecture for the Children's Academy.
