As the German ergometer runner-up, Lucas Schäfer is a strong candidate for the Olympic team

The young RuS rowers achieved top results at the Ergocup Rhein-Neckar, a highly competitive event drawing a large field of elite rowers from five federal states: Leon Sauer (9c), who competed in the 15/16-year-old junior division and hopes to qualify for the Hessian Rowing Association’s eight, reinforced his case for a spot on the selection boat by finishing 7th out of 38 competitors, setting a personal best of 5:00.1 minutes in an official competition—making him the sixth-best rower from Hesse. State coach Harald Blum expressed satisfaction with the athlete, who has only been rowing seriously since last fall.
In the 13-year-old boys’ division, the two RuS young rowers Jonas Neirich (7a) and Lasse Jacob (6a) returned to the Steinmühle with 8th and 9th-place finishes. In their very first race, both demonstrated great fighting spirit. Luca Hahn (6a) also showed great fighting spirit, finishing in 6th place, and Leon Vielhaben ( 8c) narrowly missed the podium by just one second. Coxswain Viktor Zovko (7c) supported the team with his active participation.

At the final of the German Indoor Series in Essen-Kettwig, Lucas Schäfer, our 20-year-old RuS athlete, became the German ergometer runner-up, thereby once again earning a spot on the 2016 Olympic team. He narrowly lost the final to Lars Wichert, the stroke of the German four, but his performance earned him the No. 1 spot among all lightweight rowers in Germany!

Lucas Schäfer will always have fond memories of 2014: He graduated from high school in early summer, impressed with top finishes at the Hessian, German, and European Championships, and also performed exceptionally well in his new age group. As a testament to his progress, he was named to the association’s elite squad in the fall of 2014, and as the icing on the cake, he was honored as Marburg’s 2014 Athlete of the Year on January 29, 2015.

The 2014 Athlete of the Year awards were jointly organized by the Ahrens department store, the Oberhessische Presse, the City of Marburg, and Sparkasse Marburg-Biedenkopf.

Our rowing coach, Martin Strohmenger—who has played a major role in Lucas’s successes—was able to celebrate alongside Lucas (see photo), as he achieved a commendable third-place finish in the “Coach of the Year” category.

Nathalie Pohl, who is also part of the Class of 2014, was named Marburg’s 2014 Athlete of the Year. The long-distance swimmer was unable to attend the ceremony; she is currently abroad.

In the “Youth Athlete of the Year” category, Philipp Leo Mengel (12th grade) put in a commendable performance and helped ensure that Steinmühle could once again make a name for itself with its successful athletes.

The school community would like to thank and congratulate its athletes and wish them a successful 2015 season!

On Saturday, January 24, 2015, Prof. Dr. Berg from the University of Marburg and School Principal Björn Gemmer hosted a Lehrkunst workshop at the Steinmühle. Numerous colleagues from Steinmühle, several “Lehrkunst” enthusiasts from other schools, and students from the University of Marburg accepted the invitation and worked together to further develop a relatively new teaching module in “Lehrkunst” pedagogy. “UAZ – Unsere Abendzeitung” is the name of the unit, which is scheduled to be implemented in Steinmühle’s project-based classes starting next year and was presented by its author, Mr. Stephan Schmidlin from Switzerland. The interest among the Steinmühle teachers in attendance was correspondingly high; they were able to try out the teaching project, discuss it with representatives from other educational organizations, and adapt it to the conditions at Steinmühle.

In the UAZ course, students are expected to learn the basics of newspaper production: the five Ws, article structure, editing techniques, research, online searches, interviews, reporting, press conferences, archives, reworking researched material, and technical implementation are all covered. The core idea is to mimic the work of a newspaper editorial office, which turns 400 pages of wire service reports and its own material into a 40-page newspaper. The project calls for students to design 4 pages of their “own newspaper”—“Unsere Abendzeitung”—from the 40-page newspaper.

At the end of the day, everyone involved agreed that the chosen approach works well, offers many opportunities for individual focus and creativity, and will therefore help the students in Steinmühle’s future eighth-grade classes to develop skills with joy, motivation, and a great deal of independent work.

We would like to thank Stephan Schmidlin, Prof. Dr. Christoph Berg, and everyone involved for a productive day of professional development!

Masks transform the wearer, deceive the viewer, or offer protection from prying eyes and toxic fumes. Sixth-grade students learned about this and much more regarding the functions and designs of masks, both past and present, through the mask project. Above all, however, they discovered just how much fun it is to build and paint masks with classmates using plaster or cardboard. The small skit presented as part of the project—featuring a mysterious fairy, terrifying superheroes, and bizarre aliens—was the grand finale for everyone.

On December 10, visitors to our Christmas concert were treated to a colorful, diverse program: The well-known groups Wind Instrument Class 6, Grade 6 Swing & Sing Club, Chamber Music Club, the Concert Band and The Suited …also showed their festive side.

The Ruth Schwarz Duo (flute) and Gerhard Baum (guitar) from the Marburg Music School were welcome guests, and they performed a superb piece of chamber music—an Allegretto by Fürstenau.

The following people, in particular, did a great job of creating a festive Christmas atmosphere: Flutes from Wind Instrument Class 6 featuring three traditional Christmas plays, The Chamber Music Club with “How blessed I am to have Jesus” and “A Child Is Born” and the WU Choir with Mr. Wever, who is the “Snowball Fight” and “Winter Wonderland” performed.

The students in the Swing & Sing Club in 6th grade put on a fantastic performance. They’ve already gotten very good at combining singing and dancing to create a successful show.

There are also two surprises worth mentioning: Our violinist’s first singing performance Bodam Lee and the ensemble of singers and musicians Teachers with Berlioz’s “L’adieu des bergers.”