Akaash Bhagwat Wins State Championship in Physics

Huge joy for the team of advisors—Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf, Sven Freibert—and the entire Steinmühle community: Last weekend, 12-year-old Akaash Bhagwat, a student in our International High School Program, won first place in physics at the state-level “Schüler experimentieren” competition held at the University of Kassel! Akaash took an in-depth look at how to combine environmental protection and cost savings when it comes to batteries. He analyzed over a hundred used batteries and discovered that they still contain a considerable amount of residual energy. This inspired him to make a large portion of that residual energy usable again using a voltage converter. Among other things, he modified a 4.5V flashlight—which is normally powered by three 1.5V batteries—so that it can now run on a single used battery.

Several factors led the jury to award first place to our 6i student: the high social relevance of the project, the comprehensive and systematic analysis, and the visually appealing and informative presentation of the results. The experts were so impressed by Akaash’s work that, in addition to the prize money, they awarded him the Special Prize for Energy Efficiency and the Environment as well as the Special Prize for Resource Efficiency. Our photos show the student at his desk and at the award ceremony alongside state competition director Eva Kretzer. The older students will compete this Thursday in the state “Jugend forscht” competition, which will take place at Merck in Darmstadt. We’re keeping our fingers crossed and will later summarize the projects of all participants in a comprehensive report.