To mark ‘Young Scientists’ Day’, which focused on the theme ‘Paper – it’s brilliant!’, the President of Rein-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Dr Oliver Locker-Grütjen, the Mayor of Bedburg-Hau, Stephan Reinders, and Stefan Rouenhoff, Member of the Bundestag for the Kleve constituency (CDU), visited the after-school care programme at St. Markus Primary School in Bedburg-Hau, run by Manuela Witzke.
To mark ‘Young Scientists’ Day’, which had the theme ‘Paper – it’s brilliant!’, the President of Rein-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Dr Oliver Locker-Grütjen, the Mayor of Bedburg-Hau, Stephan Reinders, and Stefan Rouenhoff, Member of the Bundestag for the Kleve constituency (CDU), visited the after-school care programme at St Mark’s Primary School in Bedburg-Hau, run by Manuela Witzke. For the past six years, the team running the Caritas Kleve after-school care programme has been continuously developing its skills through the ‘Haus der kleinen Forscher*innen’ network in the Kleve district at Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences, actively exploring the children’s everyday world with them at both school sites: examples include bridge engineering and carbon dioxide, plastic and upcycling, and growing mushrooms and ant colonies.
And they do so consistently and with great enthusiasm, as demonstrated by various awards for their research projects in recent years and their repeated certification as a ‘Haus der kleinen Forscher’.
This time, the focus was entirely on paper as a recyclable material. Supported by network coordinator Barbara Maué from the ‘Haus der kleinen Forscher*innen’ in the Kleve district at Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences – including through an online workshop and digital resources – the teaching staff had familiarised themselves with research activities centred on the topic of paper. Based on these ideas and the children’s interests, various lines of inquiry emerged: from investigating fibres, through production and recycling, to a creative paper-bead workshop using a variety of geometric paper flags, or the construction of bridges and houses from paper rolls and strips.
Seeing the children so engrossed in their research, Stefan Rouenhoff thanked the university, the school and Caritas, as the organising body, “for their commitment to promoting STEM subjects, particularly in view of the challenges ahead, for which we – with the help of STEM innovations – will need to find solutions”.
It was clear to see and hear that this support is also a source of enjoyment: “It looks like Spider-Man’s web – only in red!” exclaims Florian (10) enthusiastically, as he examines the structure of crepe paper under the microscope and links the properties of different types of paper to their areas of application – materials science at its best.
“If good, active STEM education begins as early as nursery and primary school age, there’s a good chance that enthusiasm for research will carry through to university studies,” said Dr Oliver-Grütjen, who was impressed by the research activities at St Markus Primary School and would have loved to recruit one or two of the young researchers on the spot.
