November saw the start of the new season of the Student University on Saturday. The Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences kicked things off with the topic "Treasures of the past - brown coal in Upper Lusatia". Around 30 students listened intently to the introductory lecture by Diplom-Ingenieur Eric Schön on the topic of "Opencast lignite mines" before deciding on one of the subsequent practical activities.

One of these was the role-playing game "Players in opencast lignite mining", which was also led by Eric Schön. The pupils took on the roles of coal company managers, resettlers, workers and environmentalists and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of generating electricity from coal from four different perspectives.

Diplom chemist Annett Franke took the other part of the group to the geoecology laboratory to determine and examine local soils, minerals and rocks. Equipped with identification keys, microscopes and a hardness scale, the pupils learned about common tools and methods for geoecological investigations. The pupils were so interested that they continued their research in the laboratory long after the official end of the event.

The next Student University event will take place next Saturday, January 26, 2019, at the Görlitz campus and will be hosted by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science'. The topic is "Embedded Systems - Smart Home" and there are still a few places available.

Click here to register.