When chocolate is in the experimental setup
Pupils surpass themselves during science project week.
How do you steal a plant’s scent? How do microplastics in the soil affect plant growth? How can you charge your cell phone without using electricity from an outlet? Are fuel cells the future of energy supply? And how reliable are the nutritional facts on chocolate packaging, anyway? These are important questions, and it was up to 26 ninth-graders from the Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium in Löbau (GSG) to find the answers.
Feeling Like College Students in a Laboratory Course
The science project week, organized in cooperation with the Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium in Löbau, is an annual project that is organized with great enthusiasm by both the university and the high school.
From among eleven different scientific topics—more than ever before and, for the first time, with the participation of the Fraunhofer IWU—the participants were able to choose their favorites last September and feel just like college students in a laboratory course.
On the final day, working in pairs, they presented their project and the work they had done over the past four days to the jury and an enthusiastic audience through a short presentation and a poster. Among the audience was the university’s Rector, Professor Kratzsch, who presented certificates and university gift bags at the awards ceremony.
“In just a few days, the students not only explored the complex course content of various degree programmes but also got to know our state-of-the-art university laboratories, learning a great deal about experimental methods and the fundamentals of scientific work. It’s wonderful to see the enthusiasm and ambition with which the younger generation is tackling these important topics,” the Rector concluded.
”Actively shaping the future
Thanks to the in-depth, multi-day insight into university teaching, the young researchers learned that they are also capable of grasping and mastering more difficult content. They also realized that by choosing a degree course, they can make a decision to actively help shape the future - both for themselves and for everyone else. This is because many courses and fields of study at the HSCG deal with precisely those important questions about resource-conserving production processes,CO2-neutral power generation and sustainable basic supplies that urgently require an answer in view of dwindling resources and problematic changes to the climate. A "problem-solving course" at the HSZG enables students to play an important role in finding answers.
A big thank you goes to the Friends of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, which provided book vouchers totaling 80 euros as prizes for the best presentations and posters, as well as to all staff members at HSZG and Fraunhofer IWU who offered a project and contributed to the success of the project week.
Special thanks go to: Dr.-Ing. Jana Reinhold, Diplom-Chemiker. (FH) Jens Krusche, Diplom-Ingenieur (FH) Matthias Herrmann, Dr.-Ing. Liane Vogel, Diplom-Ingenieur Uwe Heidrich, Diplom-Ingenieur (FH) Felix Rothe, Prof. Dr. Gerd Fischer, Dipl.-Chem. (FH) Matthias Jeschke, Diplom-Ingenieur (FH) Egmont Schreiter, Dr.-Ing. Steffen Gärtner, Dr.-Ing. Maria Schäfer, Anne Richter (B.Sc.), Christiane Dittrich (B.A.), Diplom-Chemikerin Christine Borowski, Diplom-Ingenieur Anett Kupka, Diplom-Chemikerin Ilona Kitzig, Diplom-Wirtschaftsingenieur (BA) Stephan Skiba, Dr.-Ing. Rolf Schicke, und Heidrun Nocke. We would also like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere thanks to Mr. Kopte and Ms. Pohl, who organized and coordinated the project week on behalf of the high school.
2nd upper floor
1st floor