At the regional “Jugend Forscht” competition, the two 12th-grade students, Lena Noelle Joußen (17) and Janina Seip (18), qualified for the Hesse state competition in Darmstadt. This meant they had to keep putting the finishing touches on their project right up until the very end.
The two-person team set off for Darmstadt the day before the competition, right after school ended. The next morning at 8 a.m., they were admitted to the Merck company’s gym. A total of 36 teams from the fields of the working world, biology, chemistry, earth and space sciences, mathematics and computer science, physics, and technology set about setting up their booths, taking the opportunity to check out the other participants’ projects.
Each team received two partition walls as well as tables and chairs; parents and guardians were not permitted to attend that day. At 9 a.m., the opening remarks were given, highlighting this year’s motto, “Don’t ask me, ask yourself,” and outlining the schedule for the day. A list of the jury’s evaluation times was passed around. This was much more enjoyable than at the regional competition, since we didn’t have to stand at the booth the whole time but could also attend various workshops on topics such as dual study programs or patent law, etc. We also got to know the other teams better, who also had very good projects to present.
45-minute evaluation by a four-member panel of experts
The wait until the jury’s questioning seemed relatively long, and our nerves kept getting worse. At 12:15 p.m., the jury arrived at our booth, “Microorganisms and Plastic Degradation: Identification of Bacteria in the Larval Intestines of Galleria mellonella.” Our presentation was followed by questions from the four-member expert jury, after which a sort of conversation developed, making the 45 minutes go by faster than expected.
We were done just in time for lunch, so we were able to spend the rest of the day in a more relaxed manner. Until 4:00 p.m., camera crews, photographers, and radio teams were on the move, interviewing the candidates. The jury also conducted their final evaluations. This was followed by a dress rehearsal for the awards ceremony, which seemed a bit unnecessary. Then, after a long wait, the moment finally arrived: buses took us participants to the Kinopolis so that everyone could watch the movie “Ex Machina” and then enjoy dinner together. During this time, the atmosphere among us grew increasingly lively, and by the end of the evening—when everyone had settled into either a youth hostel or a hotel—many new connections had been made.
“Feel free to put your own ideas into action!”
The next morning, we had breakfast, and afterward everyone was driven back to the Merck campus. There was a lot of excitement about the awards ceremony, as well as a noticeable sense of fatigue among everyone. However, the schedule didn’t allow for any long breaks. The tour of the Merck Innovation Center, where ideas for the future are brought to life, was very impressive and innovative, and our fatigue quickly faded away. We were given an insight into the idea development process—which usually takes more than two years—and a startup entrepreneur explained his company’s process to us in a very relaxed manner, encouraging us to put our ideas into action.
After spending nearly three hours at the Merck plant, we made our way back to the gym, where parents, chaperones, and science enthusiasts were now waiting to hear explanations of the projects. This part was exhausting but also very interesting, as a noticeable number of interested people came to our booths.
Vince Ebert as host
At 3:30 p.m., the awards ceremony began as the participants entered the hall, and host Vince Ebert welcomed everyone in his usual warm and friendly manner. This was followed by many more speeches from Merck representatives, mayors, and the Minister of Culture.
With its second-place finish in the biology category, along with 200 euros in prize money, Steinmühle achieved a very gratifying result, which delighted our parents as well as our advisor, Dr. Dietmar von der Ahe, and our chemistry and physics teacher, Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf, who had also traveled to Darmstadt. Dr. von der Ahe, as our advisor, received the Advisor’s Award. All in all, these two days were extremely enlightening, interesting, yet also very exhausting, and were filled with many wonderful experiences. Janina Seip
Lena Noelle Joußen and Janina Seip won second prize at the state-level “Jugend Forscht” competition for their research on “Microorganisms and Plastic Degradation: Identification of Bacteria in the Larval Intestines of Galleria mellonella.”
This speaks to the quality of the education at Steinmühle: Just like his colleague Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf (right) at the “Schüler experimentieren” junior competition, Dr. Dietmar von der Ahe (left) also received the Mentor Award at the “Jugend Forscht” competition.
