“Jugend Forscht”: Steinmühlen Teams Win Additional Special Prize

Another success for Steinmühlen High School students Joshua Wieder (15), Morten Köhler (15), and Benjamin Schul (16): After the successful trio won the regional “Jugend Forscht” competition, the three students went on to take second place in the state competition. What’s more, they also won the special “JugendUnternimmt summer school” prize for their chemistry project. Held in Erfurt from July 30 to August 5, this seminar teaches entrepreneurial thinking with a focus on the potential commercialization of one’s own business idea. Their younger classmates Leonard Berger (13), Mats Egbring (12), and Leontin Schmidt (13) were also successful at the state-level “Schüler experimentieren” competition in Kassel, as they had likewise qualified for the next round. At the competition, which took place at the University of Kassel’s Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, they took third place and also received the Special Prize for Environmental Technology from the Federal Foundation for the Environment.

From left: Morten Köhler, Benjamin Schul, Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf, Mats Egbring, Leontin Schmidt (not pictured: Leonard Berger)

 

Why conventional heating pads don’t work in ski boots—the questions the project posed to the older students have been persistently explored by Joshua, Morten, and Benjamin since last year, as they’ve come up with new ideas. They continued their research and attempted to conduct the experiment using new metals, catalysts, and oxidizing agents to optimize the heating pad system for ski boots. At the awards ceremony, which took place at Merck in Darmstadt, the expert jury praised them, saying: “You presented everything clearly and effectively, improved the analytical methods, and developed a redox system that works experimentally and is suitable for creating a prototype.”

In last year’s project, the trio of researchers was already able to demonstrate that oxygen is consumed very quickly in a snugly fitting ski boot and that the reaction leading to heat production quickly comes to a halt. Now they have found a solution to this problem; they tested various oxygen-releasing substances and ultimately succeeded with oxygen-based detergents. When heated, these substances—used as detergent additives—release large amounts of oxygen.

 

How to Develop a Business Plan

The “JugendUnternimmt Summer School,” which Joshua, Morten, and Benjamin are now attending, aims to empower young people to develop their ideas and innovations into viable business concepts and present them, as well as to give them an understanding of the social and societal responsibilities that entrepreneurs bear.

– Just imagine if the experiment by the three chemistry whizzes actually made it to market one day!

Now, of course, the trio is hoping that this seminar in Thuringia—which was offered as a prize by the International Martin Luther Foundation and the Thuringia Foundation for Technology, Innovation, and Research—will even be able to take place at all, given the pandemic. It will only be held in person—or it will be canceled. Unfortunately, there are no plans for an online option.

The figure on the right summarizes the project’s topic and its performance in the competition.

 

Nitrate in the Lahn River: Experiments on Removal

Leonard Berger, Mats Egbring, and Leontin Schmidt had also participated in the “Jugend Forscht” competition last year, focusing on the issue of nitrate. Back then, their work involved soil analyses; this time, the focus was on measurements in water bodies—specifically, in the nearby Lahn River. This is because nitrate is also dangerous in water bodies, as it can seep into groundwater and drinking water and is harmful to the body. The trio of researchers was particularly interested in the changes that occur in different seasons and at different locations along the Lahn as a result of fertilization and harvesting. The young researchers also wanted to find out whether nitrate can be removed from the water. To this end, they closely examined chemical and biological products available in the aquarium trade to test their effectiveness.

The expert jury also praised these projects highly and awarded them third place in the state-wide competition.

The Steinmühle congratulates you all on these achievements! You can be proud—we certainly are!

For the 30th time, the Center for Chemistry (ZFC) invited 16 high school students from Hesse to learn about scientific practice and specific corporate structures through dialogue with professionals. In the “digital lab,” the young talents explored high-performance materials that also play a central role in the context of the energy transition. Topics included efficient storage media for renewable energy, as well as surface analyses and high-performance magnets, such as those used in the field of electric mobility and in wind turbines.

Veit Gemmer, a student in Class 13 at Steinmühle, had qualified for the week-long Inventors’ Lab. His group focused on sodium solid-state batteries, which contain so-called Nasicon electrolytes and may one day offer alternatives to the problematic materials currently used in lithium-ion batteries.

The Inventors’ Lab was actually supposed to take place in October 2020 but was then postponed to early 2021 due to the pandemic. This event, too, could only be held online, but it still provided interesting insights, as Veit reports:

The Inventors’ Lab, themed “High-Performance Materials for the Future,” which normally takes place at the Technical University (TU) of Darmstadt, was at least able tobe heldonline via the Microsoft Teams platform. During the week-long workshop, we had the opportunity to gain exciting insights into the field of materials science and the Merck Group through various discussions with experts from TU Darmstadt and Merck KGaA. Using this knowledge, combined with our own additional research, our group was tasked with creating an educational video about sodium solid-state batteries. Even though creating a high-quality video took a great deal of time, the week was still very interesting.

Veit Gemmer

Created in the Inventor’s Lab created Video about sodium solid-state batteries

 

Closing Ceremony (below: Veit with his group)

 

Computer simulations of the Transport mechanisms and Conductivityen of sodium–ions in the solid-state electrolyte Nasicon (Na+–Super-ion conductor).

 

Improvement of Conductivityby Nasicoelectrolytes via Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD)

Once again this year, our teams performed very well at the regional “Jugend Forscht” competition, which unfortunately could only be held online this time.
Given the difficult conditions caused by the pandemic, only two groups competed this year, both of which were supervised by Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf.

 

Qualification for the State Competition

Just like last year, the team consisting of Joshua Wieder, Morten Köhler, and Benjamin Schul (10th grade) took first place in chemistry. They were able to successfully expand their project on heating pads for ski boots. With the project
With their project “The Ski Boot Problem, Part 2—New Metals, Catalysts, and Oxidizing Agents,” they qualified for the state competition in Darmstadt.
The team received two certificates, as they also won a special prize from Heise Medien: a one-year subscription to “Make,” a magazine popular in the maker scene.

Our photo shows (from left) Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf, Morten Köhler, Joshua Wieder, Benjamin Schul, and Principal Björn Gemmer.

 

“A high level of expertise for someone so young”

In the junior division of “Schüler experimentieren,” Leontin Schmidt, Leonard Berger, and Mats Egbring from 7th grade also took first place in the chemistry category with their project “Nitrate—Is It a Problem in the Lahn, Too? Measurements and Experiments for Removal.” They have thus qualified for the state competition in Kassel.

In addition, Steinmühle won the Hessian School Prize from the “Jugend Forscht” sponsor pool, which is funded by the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation.
In the laudatory speech, special recognition was given to the fact that, as in previous years, the students at Steinmühle possess a remarkable level of expertise on their project topics, especially given their young age.

Our photo shows (from left) Leontin Schmidt, Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf, Leonard Berger, and Principal Björn Gemmer. Mats Egbring is not in the photo.

Our photo shows the certificate that Steinmühle received as the winner of the Hessian School Award from the “Jugend Forscht” sponsor pool.