“Jugend forscht”/”Schüler experimentieren”: Leonard and Quentin Take 3rd Place in Physics Across Hesse

After being canceled in 2020 and held virtually in 2021, the state competition “Jugend forscht / Schüler experimentieren” took place in person again this year. The two-day event was hosted by the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Kassel. A total of 39 students in 28 teams had qualified with their projects. They presented their results to a competition jury and set up a booth to showcase their projects.
Leonard Berger and Quentin Herwig from class 8a also qualified by winning the regional physics competition in February with their project “Biofilms vs. Plastic Films—Production and Measurement of Physical Properties.” Together with their advisor, Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf, they were able to travel to Kassel for two days.
They had even further refined the project, in which they investigated the suitability of self-produced biofilms for everyday use. Among other things, they constructed a device for measuring elastic moduli in order to examine the tear strength and elasticity of the films.
With their project, they took 3rd place in the physics category and also won the “REset Plastic” special prize, which, in addition to recognition of their achievement, came with prize money totaling 225€.
Both boys were very happy that the event was held in person. It was two fantastic, eventful days. The unanimous opinion of everyone involved was that, above all, the personal interaction among the young researchers and with the expert juries cannot be adequately replaced by any digital format.
Both young researchers are also certain that the project still has a great deal of potential, and they definitely want to continue their research on it.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our colleagues who had to do without the young researchers in class on several occasions over the past few weeks.