BiUtopia competition: First place for biology teacher training students from Kassel

The competition, sponsored by the Klaus Tschira Foundation, took place for the first time in 2023/24. Organized by the Department of Didactics of Biology at Freie Universität Berlin together with the Didactics of Biology section of the VBIO (FDdB), prospective biology teachers were invited to submit innovative teaching concepts to promote the acquisition of scientific knowledge.
Following a selection process based on originality and theoretical and empirical references by a three-member jury, the three best student teams were invited to Berlin to implement and reflect on their teaching concepts with pupils. Laura Hillmann, Johannes Decker and Darius Nickel, supervised by Helge Martens, Lars Meyer-Odewald and Marit Kastaun (FB 10, Didactics of Biology), presented their submitted teaching idea for the differentiated promotion of variable identification and control during experimentation. The students developed a digital learning environment for photosynthesis experiments that is adapted to individual learning requirements. The jury awarded the three students first place and a prize of €600 each. The teaching concept is now to be published with the other five best teaching ideas.