Stars and STEM Stories
The 6th GLOBE Germany Students' Congress at the DLR School Lab in Cologne Porz
[Deutsch]
The Project Department "Agenda 21 in schools and youth work" at the North Rhine-Westfalia institute for schools, which is in charge of the NRW Globe-Germany schools, hosted the Globe-Germany Students' Congress for the second time on June 8, 2005, together with the DLR School Lab in Cologne-Porz. This was the 6th congress since 2000 and the third one at DLR. Seventy students from six schools in NRW and twelve representatives of the teaching staff had come to exchange views and experiences in lectures, discussions and an exhibition as well as receive information about experiments at the DLR School Lab in an accompanying forum.
For the 2005 Congress, student groups from grades 5 to 12 prepared 15 contributions covering a wide range of topics:
- genesis and effect of seasons, leaf budding as indication of climate change, water quality in tributaries of the Lippe and Emscher rivers (Ernst Barlach Gymnasium),
- quality of the Erft river water (Realschule der Stadt Kerpen, Gesamtschule Bergheim),
- quality of the Ems river water (Von-Galen-Realschule Warendorf within the Ems habitat network) and in tributaries of the Dhunn river (Montanus Realschule Leverkusen) and
- animals in different climate zones saving energy (Elly-Heuss-Knapp-Realschule Cologne in cooperation with the Zoo School Cologne).
The coordinator of GLOBE Germany, Birgit Rademacher from the Leibniz Institute for Science Education (IPN) in Kiel, praised the extraordinary activities of all GLOBE teams present and, in her own contribution, portrayed recent developments in research and teaching at GLOBE Germany, in particular "Distant research brought closer" and "North-South exchange".
The accompanying exhibition, which - like the congress itself - was staged in the centrifuge and experimental halls of the DLR School Lab, displayed, among other things, posters showing teaching locations out of school, graphs featuring the data collected at these locations as well as exhibits from projects on Bonsai birches and the huge landscape model of a stream.
As a very appealing excursion for lunchtime, the chairman of the DLR School Lab, Dr. Bräucker, prepared an introduction to gravitation biology, solar water cleaning, weightlessness in short-distance falls, active noise abating and material codes. Eager and highly concentrated students followed him and his team into the world of current research at the DLR.
At the close of the Congress, Dr. Bräucker demonstrated which scientific results the study of the universe had furnished so far and which new questions it had raised in his lecture on "Fascination Universe".
Participating schools received certificates and book prizes awarded by the Department of Education and presented by the chairman, Mr H. Horstmeier.
For more information, see the Conference Website at:
http://lo-net.de/group/globe21/generator9.htm
Helmut Horstmeier
Agenda 21 for Schools and Youth Work
State Coordinator GLOBE NRW
NRW Institute for Schools