Discover STEM in all its diversity as part of the “Jugend präsentiert” supporting program

On April 25, the state finals of the “Jugend präsentiert” competition for students in grades 7 through 12 took place at the Heinrich-Heine-Gymnasium in Kaiserslautern.  Forty-one students from Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, and Baden-Württemberg had already arrived the day before and participated in the supporting program organized by the BioVT institute and designed by several groups within the MV department.

The MEGT and MVT chairs, together with the BioVT group, had prepared such a diverse and engaging program that choosing just one activity was no easy task for the students; in fact, the real challenge was deciding what to miss out on.

In the mechanical engineering section, for example, the focus was on the question, “How complex can assembling a gearbox really be?”  The students gained insights into the functionality and significance of this assembly, as well as its optimization, which can make an important contribution to energy savings and the achievement of climate goals.

Those who loved mysteries could devote themselves to solving tricky mechanical puzzles in the escape room.

Under the title “Solid, liquid, or something in between? – Discovering the World of Particles,” the MVT department offered exciting experiments exploring the properties of particles. Among other things, participants used a tablet press to turn loose powder into solid tablets.

At the BioVT group, everything revolved around the colorful world of algae and cyanobacteria. The students assembled a photobioreactor for cultivating microalgae and carried out experiments to demonstrate photosynthesis. To this end, they immobilized the algae in so-called “algae bubbles.” When exposed to light, the still active algae within these bubbles caused a CO₂ indicator to change from yellow to purple within a short time, providing clear evidence of ongoing photosynthetic activity. Things got even more colorful when it came time to extract dyes from algae and cyanobacteria using different solvents. Finally, photometric measurements enabled the students to determine which photopigments were present in the samples.

The students had a great time participating in the activities and gained exciting insights into the diverse world of STEM subjects. All in all, the experience left many students with a good reason to return for the next “Jugend präsentiert” event, if only to try out the activities they had to miss this time.