Hessian state competition "Schüler experimentieren" on 26/27 March

All interested parties are invited to follow the livestream at http://www.uni-kassel.de/go/schueler_experimentieren (the page will be updated shortly). The moderator will be science journalist Dr. Sascha Ott.

53 students are competing in 33 teams and come from seven competition regions in Hesse. One team of three will come from the German European School, Singapore. All students will present their work in front of the camera - wherever they are - and transmit their presentations digitally to Kassel. They will also be available for discussion with the jury via video link. The 24 jurors and the students will meet exclusively in the digital space. Last year, the competition had to be canceled at short notice immediately before it was to be held on March 27 and 28 due to the Corona pandemic that emerged at the time.

"Schüler experimentieren" is "Jugend forscht" for the younger ones. "Jugend forscht" and "Schüler experimentieren" are the two best-known German competitions for young people in the field of engineering and natural sciences. In Kassel, the winners from the seven Hessian regional competitions in the disciplines of work, biology, chemistry, earth and space sciences, mathematics/computer science, physics and technology are expected, but this year only in an online format. So up to 49 teams of up to three students each will take part in the state competition. The winners of each discipline will receive prize money for first, second and third place respectively. In addition, numerous special prizes will also be awarded. The "Creatively Best Work" will be awarded 300 euros by the Hessian Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs.

The range of topics is again very broad this year: One work, for example, is devoted to the question of whether cucumbers or potatoes are better suited as batteries. Other works dealt with "plant reactions to certain scents", "dancing shampoo" or "drinking water production from seawater".

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Axel Bangert
University of Kassel
Department of Electrical Engineering/Computer Science
Tel.: 0561/804-6366
E-mail: bangert[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

Eva Katharina Kretzer
State Competition Director Schüler experimentieren Hessen
E-mail: evakretzer[at]t-online[dot]de

Sebastian Mense
University of Kassel
Press spokesman
Tel.: 0561 / 804-1961
E-mail: presse[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

Voices and assessments

It's not so much the prize money that counts, says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Axel Bangert, Dean of the Department of Electrical Engineering/Computer Science at the University of Kassel, but the recognition and encouragement of the girls and boys. The students chose their own topic, which they worked on under expert supervision. "The work is definitely demanding," says Bangert.

Eva Katharina Kretzer, state competition director for "Schüler experimentieren" in Hesse, points to the high quality of the work, the commitment and the independence with which the young people work on their projects. "The number of entries in the 'Schüler experimentieren' section now accounts for more than half of all entries in 'Jugend forscht' in Hesse. This makes it particularly clear how important and long overdue a second quality level was, also for the younger participants. I am very pleased that we have finally been able to establish the state competition in Hesse in 2019, in order to honor the high level and sometimes excellent work of the young researchers and to motivate them to continue participating in the competition."

Eva Katharina Kretzer says that the achievements of the many project supervisors should also be highlighted, without whose mostly voluntary support, especially in the junior section of the competition, successful participation in it would be inconceivable: "Teachers work here with a great deal of heart and soul and a high level of commitment that far exceeds the core business of day-to-day school life. Despite the restrictions in Corona times and the cancellation of many work groups, intensive individual support  - including digital  - has taken place in many places."

"We need bright minds to develop those things that we can sell to the world. We need boys and girls who are enthusiastic about technology. With the 2021 state competition, we are finding and encouraging children between the ages of fourth grade and 14 who enjoy puzzling and playing games and thus have the intrinsic motivation to become engineers," Bangert says. In his observation, young people in high school often have already decided on a profession on the inside. That's why it's important to awaken and develop their playful talent with technology with children as early as elementary and junior high school, he says. "The children should use their time and not idle away on their smartphones," says Bangert. He said he would like to see engineering "advertised more" in schools. Applied engineering, he says, occupies an intermediate position between the cultural sciences on the one hand and the classical natural sciences on the other. It is in danger of not receiving enough attention in this gap, he said: "Engineering sciences are not just physics or biology or chemistry, but they are mathematical puzzling and playing with natural phenomena from different disciplines, and their results are applied in social systems, change, determine or shape the everyday lives of billions of people." That's why Bangert and his department support the Hessen SolarCup, which is held every year in Kassel. There, children and young people compete for the most efficient use of energy in moving around with technical aids such as solar-powered vehicles. "We need to offer children a wide range of topics and fun from elementary school age so that they later make the right career choice," Bangert says.

Background information

The state competition is the "young sibling" of "Jugend forscht" and is consistently aimed at the younger generation. In almost all German states, there has been such a state competition for quite some time, says Bangert. In Hesse, however, there was none until 2019. This gap was pointed out to him in October 2017 by Doro-Thea Chwalek from the Kassel-Marburg Chamber of Industry and Commerce, who was responsible at the time for training and further education as well as MINT project coordination. He then contacted the cdw Foundation of SMA founders Cramer, Drews and Wettlaufer. The three former electrical engineering students from Kassel had made the topic of their diploma thesis the subject of their company. SMA Solar Technology AG rose to become one of the world's leading suppliers of inverters in the solar industry. The cdw Foundation made the first state competition in Hesse possible in 2019. Hübner GmbH & Co. KG, Kassel, , together with the cdw Foundation and the Department of Electrical Engineering/Computer Science, are providing significant support as sponsors for the second state competition "Schüler experimentieren" in 2021. Eva Katharina Kretzer and Axel Bangert would like to thank these two sponsors, as well as the representatives of the "Jugend forscht" competition and the Hessian Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs for their diverse support.

The students will present their work and experiments to the members of the seven subject juries on Friday, March 26, 2021, and face questions from the reviewers. A presentation to a physically present audience is not possible this year due to the Corona pandemic. There are already videos of some of the competition entries on the homepage of the Jugend forscht foundation, in which the young researchers present their work. On Saturday, March 27, 2021, the public is invited to attend the award ceremony via video from 2 p.m. onwards. Dr. Sascha Ott http://www.saschaott.de will moderate the ceremony. He is a graduate physicist who at some point discovered his love of science journalism and is known and in demand far beyond the borders of his hometown of Cologne with various formats through radio and television as well as live appearances. The award ceremony will be livestreamed and will be available as a video afterwards.

More about "Jugend forscht" and "Schüler experimentieren": https://www.jugend-forscht.de