event

From the 12th-14th of September 2023, the MINT-Mitmachtage took place, where local pupils had the opportunity to get to know the exciting world of STEM fields (mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology). Of course, we wouldn’t miss the opportunity to take part in such an event, because it is very important to us to support STEM education and to show pupils how exciting these fields are and what kind of things you can design and create yourself. We have often had the opportunity to work with schools and make our lab available as an out-of-school educational space. This enables pupils to learn about interesting new technologies and realise their own creative projects.

For the MINT-Mitmachtage we prepared two exciting workshops for the pupils: they had the opportunity to learn microcontroller programming with a Calliope Mini kit or to dive into the world of 3D printing.

The 3D-printing-Workshop started with an introduction explaining, among other things, the structure of a 3D printer and the process of additive manufacturing, which is the process of building a model layer by layer. We then taught the pupils the basics of 3D modelling as well as the printing process and introduced them to the modelling software TinkerCad. It is free and open source, enabling the pupils, e.g., to continue modelling independently at home. After that, they were well prepared to work on their own little projects. They designed their own key chains and then printed them three-dimensionally in the DIGITALUM bus using our Prusa i3 MK3S and MK3S+ printers. They also had the opportunity to take a look at the technologies in the bus, e.g., a virtual reality station, a thermoforming machine, a laser cutter, a plotter and a soldering station.

In the Microcontroller-Programming-Workshop, the pupils learned how to give instructions to microcontrollers using block code. We showed them the importance of programming and what it can be used for, e.g., creating websites and developing operating systems. Electronic devices like mobile phones and washing machines or also traffic lights only work because of their programming. Additionally, the pupils were taught basic algorithms and the science behind programming in a playful manner. In the practical part of the workshop, the children were able to actively program something with the Calliope Mini kit. At first, they connected the microcontrollers and opened the corresponding browser version of the program “Open Roberta Lab”. They were able to choose whether they wanted to program a traffic light or a mini piano, but also had the freedom to contribute and realize their own ideas.

In total, over 1000 children took part in the MINT-Mitmachtage. We would like to sincerely thank the Regionales Bildungsbüro des Kreises Siegen-Wittgenstein for organising the event. We enjoyed giving the workshops and hope that we were able to fill many pupils with enthusiasm for the exciting world of STEM fields!