Communication of technological aspects to primary schools and pre-school facilities by students of engineering sciences

The TUM Engineering School Open Day and Informatik 4ING discovered in a study that a substantial cause for the expected shortfall of Engineers in Germany can be attributed to a lack of communication of technical content to primary school aged children. Young people with low education exposure in particular display little motivation, or enthusiasm and a low goal orientation towards engineering careers. Students can act as excellent ambassadors bringing this content into schools as they, due to their age and enthusiasm, can become positive role models.
For this reason it is planned to encourage students to visit primary schools and bring fundamental natural principles to life together with the children. The course provides students with key skills such as structured approach, communication, summarisation of results etc.

1. Preparation / Information
In an initial meeting the students will recieve all required information regarding the visits.
Experiments from the fields of

- Air
- Water
- Magnets
- Force
- Friction
- Levers

are possible. The students choose four to five experiments from the catalog which they then prepare.

2. Preparation of the experiments
As preparation for the experiments the students gather the needed objects and practise the experiments themselves. Three to five students form groups, make contact with primary schools and, when the school is interested, confirm a date. Each group may be reinforced by additional members (Retired Engineers, teaching associates).
3. Experiments
As part of the actual experiments, the students perform the tests in the schools. One student performs the experiment while the other students divide themselves amongst the schoolchildren. The children are split up into small groups of five to six. It is important to communicate with the schoolchildren on their level and to try to instill enthusiasm and interest in the children.


4. Evaluation
After the presentation the students prepare a short written report detailing the response to their experiment and their feedback for future improvement. The Teachers and schoolchildren also have the opportunity to provide feedback and assess the event.

After participating in the Never fear – Start engineering course, the students have developed experience in demonstrating a variety of natural and engineering science themes and the principles behind them including the classification of these principles together with the primary school children.

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The natural and engineering science experiments which are to be performed with the schoolchildren will be practiced first in small groups with teaching associates and the students will be involved in developing a child friendly explanation of the different phenomena. Small groups will also take part in the school visits and the experiments will be shown and actively presented.

Use of materials for the experiments which will be organised by the Chair.

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The contents of the course Never fear – Start engineering will be assessed through an extracurricular projectwork.
The goal of the course Never fear – Start engineering is that students, as part of their extra-disciplinary fundamentals, visit Primary schools and carry out small experiments from the natural and engineering science fields with school children. The idea is not to deal with complex content as in regular courses but to present primary school level themes in a didatic manner and communicate these to the school children. As such the actual knowledge development of student will not be assessed, rather the ability to independantly prepare and communicate knowledge. This will be evaluated through successful participation in the school visits.