"changING Regio" is the latest research project of the changING research club in the SE²A Cluster of Excellence, which was kicked off in February with 19 participants. The research club deals with transferring knowledge of current scientific questions to pupils from schools in the Braunschweig region. In particular female students should be given the opportunity to deal with technical issues and to strive for a technical career. So more specifically, pupils get the opportunity to work together with institutes of TU Braunschweig and realizing own projects.
What has happened so far? The pupils received a kit with equipment in advance for experimenting, which is also a special initiative and differs from the other changING offers. In weekly online meetings, for example, they have been looking at the development and optimisation of aircraft components and the importance of 3D printing. In another session, the question of how an aircraft actually flies was explored and linked to real-life examples.
What’s the difference from changING? The hybrid format enables female pupils in grades 11 and 12 from the region, so not just Braunschweig, to experiment and learn more about the working world of researchers. We are very pleased to have reached pupils from the region between Schöppenstedt, Osnabrück, Bad Harzburg and Lüneburg. The weekly online format allows easier participation and can be perfectly combined with the school day without the need to commute to TU Braunschweig.
“The intensive preparations and our experience from the research clubs in recent years are paying off”, says Dr Anne Geese and refers to the Covid pandemic. Due to the pandemic, regular changING events were already taking place online. “Together with the institutes, we developed exciting formats that we can now continue to use”, explains Dr Geese.
The expansion of changING to further regions is intended to encourage more young women to venture into disciplines in which women are underrepresented. The hybrid character of the format is designed to make it easier to participate. We would be delighted if future female scientists of TU Braunschweig will be among the participants. We are also looking forward to the time ahead and further exciting results from the project!
For the summer it’s planned to get to know each other in person, and to visit the participating institutes. The meetings are organised by researchers from the institutes involved in SE²A. Special thanks for the ongoing engagement to: Florian Siebert, Jan Kube, Mats Overbeck, Jorge Bustamante, Andrés Arango and everyone else involved.
Read more about changING Regio in the TU Braunschweig magazine. Always uptodate is the changING Regio blog (german only): Click here!
