STEM – Page 12 – Steinmühle

Four Awards at the Kangaroo Competition

Just under 1 million students in grades 3 through 12/13 participated in the Kangaroo Competition in Germany this year, 80 of them at Steinmühle, mainly from grades 5 and 6. However, some seventh- and eighth-graders had also signed up for this voluntary test. Subject teacher Gisela Opper reports:

The Kangaroo problems are usually very stimulating, sometimes entertaining, and can be solved using a wide variety of approaches. Sometimes all it takes is common sense, a bit of ingenuity, or a creative idea. In addition, it is a multiple-choice test, which students really appreciate. At the end, all participants received a certificate, a small game, and the Kangaroo workbook containing all the problems and solutions.

Mathilda Lambach was particularly successful

In each grade level, first, second, and third prizes are awarded to the top 5 percent of participants from across Germany. These prizes are usually engaging games, math puzzles, or books. This year, Steinmühle had four prize winners: Juliana Stry (5b) received a second prize, while Teresa Dinges (5b) and Arvid Mayer (7c) each won a first prize. Mathilda Lambach (6b) was once again particularly successful this year. She scored 115 out of 120 points and received not only a game as her first prize, but also a Kangaroo T-shirt for the “longest kangaroo jump”—that is, the highest number of consecutive correct answers.

The photo shows (from left): Arvid Mayer (7c), Mathilda Lambach (6b), Teresa Dinges, and Juliana Stry (both 5b).

27. May 2019

Pangea: Ten students have advanced to the next round

Contests & Awards, News, STEM

Every year, Steinmühle participates in the nationwide Pangea Math Competition.

A total of 10 students from the participating 5th through 9th-grade classes have currently advanced to the intermediate round. The results are expected to be released in early June. This was reported by Constanze Oestreicher-Gold, head of the mathematics and science department at Steinmühle.

Principal Björn Gemmer is delighted: “These are excellent results!” He thanks the math teachers “for their great work in math class, which makes such results possible, and for motivating the students to take the Pangea competition seriously.”

The Pangea Math Competition combines the joy of problem-solving and pondering with logic and the art of calculation. “Students who feel averse to math begin to embrace it again and even find it fun,” says the organizer.

13. May 2019

Justus Schneider on the Gifted Students’ Team at the 27th Inventors’ Lab

Contests & Awards, News, STEM, Talent Development

At the 27th Inventors’ Lab organized by the Center for Chemistry, based in Bensheim an der Bergstraße, 17-year-old Justus Schneider, a student at Steinmühlen High School, was one of 16 highly gifted students who spent a week at RheinMain University of Applied Sciences exploring the topic “Electromobility—Fuel Cells.” In front of a large audience, including prominent figures from business, academia, and government ministries, he and his group presented their research ideas and proposed solutions at the event’s conclusion.

Out of nearly 200 outstanding applicants from all over Hesse, Justus was one of the 16 selected participants. He and Luca Weigel from the Lahntalschule in Biedenkopf were the only representatives from the entire county. At the Inventor Lab in the Department of Engineering at Rhein-Main University of Applied Sciences in Rüsselsheim, the young inventors were given their challenge. The challenge was to build a small vehicle on site that is powered by fuel cells. But that wasn’t all: the vehicle also had to be capable of powering other devices at the same time, including a lamp.

Fuel cells and a capacitor were among the components provided. But that was the extent of the assistance. Justus Schneider’s team built a car body out of wood and cardboard. The wheels were created using a 3D printer. The young researchers used the capacitor as an energy storage device. This allowed the lamp to stay lit even when the car was no longer moving.

Inspired by the topics of electric mobility and fuel cells

Producing hydrogen proved to be a test of patience. Since the fuel cells had two ports for hydrogen, this was the stated goal. In the lab, the talented young scientists broke down water through electrolysis. However, the endeavor to store hydrogen in balloons required the staying power necessary for research work. “Don’t give up” was also Justus Schneider’s motto when the balloon burst several times. It ultimately took five hours to make everything airtight.

The successful completion of this project has inspired Justus Schneider. Although he had already planned to pursue a career in research in mathematics or physics before the project, he can now imagine working on the further development of vehicles powered by fuel cells. Although such vehicles already exist, Justus Schneider says, they are relatively expensive to purchase. Justus Schneider’s idea is that gas stations could produce hydrogen themselves or have it delivered by industry. Based on his observations, he believes it would be easy to make changes in this area.

Justus was encouraged by his Steinmühlen teacher and STEM coordinator, Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf, to enter the competition, which had previously required practical skills. She, along with his physics teacher Dr. Rainer Nietzke and the entire school, is delighted that Steinmühle’s “streak” of participation in this prestigious event has continued this year as well.

If Justus’s work in the Inventors’ Lab did indeed serve as a catalyst for his career—so much the better. Who knows: Perhaps one day it will be a team led by Justus Schneider that achieves a breakthrough in the further development of fuel-cell-powered vehicles.

7. March 2019

The Steinmühle team won three awards at once

Contests & Awards, Ecology and Sustainability, News, STEM

Lena Joußen and Janina Seip, along with their advisor Dr. Dietmar von der Ahe, won the “Jugend Forscht” competition

Things couldn’t have gone better at the “Jugend Forscht” regional competition for Central Hesse, held at the Klein-Linden Community Center, as Steinmühle’s participation resulted in three awards: Students Lena Noelle Joußen and Janina Seip, together with their teacher Dr. Dietmar von der Ahe, won the Project Prize, the Environmental Prize, and the Advisor Prize.

“Keep going, make the most of this project’s potential, and enter the competition again.” That was the jury’s advice exactly one year ago, when the then-11th-grade students first presented their hypothesis to the panel of experts at the “Jugend Forscht” competition. They suggested that the wax moth (Galleria mellonella) might offer a solution to the plastic pollution problem. For the experiment, honeycombs infested with wax moth larvae had been placed in plastic bags. Just a short time later, the plastic was riddled with holes and crumbled. Laboratory tests confirmed that the larvae do indeed break down polyethylene (PE).

In Search of the Right Enzyme
To delve deeper into the topic, Lena and Janina set out to investigate whether the larvae of the greater wax moth harbor so-called symbionts in their intestines—that is, microorganisms that help break down plastic. Their work on the freshly deceased insect—including isolating the bacteria into a culture medium, allowing the bacteria to grow, creating bacterial clones, and performing the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)—revealed that a specific gene from the bacteria was amplifying —and at the same time raised the question of whether this gene exists in nature as part of a similar enzyme that may already be known, and whether this enzyme, through its ability to break down carbon compounds, can make a decisive contribution to plastic degradation.

“We’ve taken a decisive step closer to the result,” reports biology teacher Dr. Dietmar von der Ahe. “It’s not just one bacterium. We’ve narrowed down the list of bacterial candidates to about two dozen,” says the expert. Conducting further research in this area is a matter of time and, above all, cost.

wasn’t discouraged by setbacks. According to the biologist, who holds a Ph.D., it looked as though the research wouldn’t work out until November. The twelfth-grade students carried out over 200 PCR reactions and ultimately refused to let themselves be discouraged. Thanks to plenty of words of encouragement, effective coordination, and a well-thought-out project strategy, Steinmühle also won the Advisor’s Award. The timely and pressing topic of “plastic” was a fitting focus for the environmental award. The competition’s Sponsorenpool Hessen awarded the 1,600-euro project prize in recognition of the students’ persistent, precise, and determined work.

Prerequisites Provided by the Steinmühle Student Lab
The Steinmühle student lab, equipped by the Friends of Steinmühle Association, is an essential prerequisite for the work of the young Steinmühle researchers. Jasmine Weidenbach, chairwoman of the Friends of Steinmühle, had applied for funding (5,100 euros) from Roche Germany as the main sponsor in June 2014. Headquarters approved the application a month later, and the lab was set up in the fall of 2014. The official opening of the lab took place in February 2015.

The national “Jugend Forscht” competition is organized by the foundation of the same name. Its goal is to inspire young researchers to pursue mathematics, computer science, the natural sciences, and technology, and to foster interest in these career fields.

27. February 2019

“Youth Researches”: Young researchers from Steinmühlen took home plenty of awards

Contests & Awards, News, STEM, Talent Development

Of the 15 students, 13 qualified for their respective state competitions
Steinmühlen students explored interesting everyday questions related to nutrition and nature in the “Schüler experimentieren” competition. Under this competition title—the “Jugend Forscht” category for lower and middle school students (up to age 14)—the youngest Steinmühlen students won numerous prizes: They were able to prevail against mostly older competitors. They took first place five times and second place once. The early-intervention program—featuring the so-called “GuFi Lab,” where both basic and advanced work is conducted—has thus proven its worth in an impressive way.

Phosphate in Food—How Delicious Food Can Be Dangerous
Under this title, students Mats Böhmer, Marvin Preis, and Joel Rucker, along with their advisor Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf, entered the competition in the field of chemistry.

Excessively high phosphate levels in the blood can lead to cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. The group of students developed testing methods to analyze the phosphate content of various foods, such as döner, bratwurst, and cola. In the process, they discovered that you consume far less phosphate from the much-criticized doner than from a cola. The project was awarded first prize and will compete in the state competition in April.

Does Diet Coke Make You Fat? – A Study of Blood Sugar Levels
In their biology class, students Rebecca Zenker and Hanna Schmidt-Dege studied blood sugar levels after consuming various sweeteners, as well as cola, Diet Coke, and potatoes.

Based on their findings, they concluded that it is best not to consume artificial sweeteners at the same time as sugar, and that potatoes do not cause blood sugar levels to rise as sharply if they are allowed to cool beforehand. The project, conducted in the Biology department under the supervision of Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf, won second place.

How and how quickly does milk really go bad?
In search of an answer to this question, students Joshua Wieder, Morten Köhler, and Benjamin Schul conducted research in the Department of Chemistry. The team investigated how different types of milk spoil under various conditions. To do this, they built a temperature-control apparatus, determined the timing of curdling, and took bacterial swabs. Among other things, they found that added sugar accelerates spoilage, while longer shelf lives—even at room temperature—can be achieved by adding the sugar alcohol xylitol and by introducing air. The judges awarded first place in the same age group to the project, which was supervised by Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf. The team will now compete in the state competition.

Sunscreen for Trees
Once again in the field of chemistry, fifth-graders Mats Egbring and Leonard Berger entered the competition under the guidance of their teacher, Dr. Dietmar von der Ahe. Because his partner was unable to attend on the day of the competition, Leonard Berger presented the results. The two students isolated the leaf pigments from various colored autumn leaves and plotted them on a chromatogram. They used the leaf pigments—green, red, yellow, and brown-yellow—in solution as “sunscreen protection” against UV radiation, which simulates sunlight, on agar plates containing oral bacteria. Without color filters, bacterial growth is inhibited. The protective effect of the pigment filters ranges from 30% to 80%. The red filter provides the strongest protection against UV light. Leonard Berger received a special interdisciplinary award (equivalent to first prize) for his presentation and has been admitted to the state competition “Schüler experimentieren.”

Herbs, Tea, and More to Fight Bacteria
In their biology experiments, students Teresa Dinges, Neyla Fritz, and Sophia Rogosch (all in 5th grade), under the guidance of their teacher Dr. Dietmar von der Ahe, investigated the effect of various types of tea, herbal infusions, and food-based beverages on bacterial growth. The various solutions were mixed into liquid agar, poured into Petri dishes, and oral bacteria were spread onto them. By counting the bacterial colonies, the students were able to test the inhibitory effect of the herbal, tea, and food solutions on bacterial growth. Peppermint tea and ginger tea inhibit bacterial growth the most. The project was presented by Neyla Fritz and Sophia Rogosch (Teresa Dinges was unable to attend due to her participation in the Math Olympiad). The project won first place and has thus qualified for the state competition.

The young researchers (Schüler experimentieren) in Kassel with their mentors:
From left to right: Mats Böhmer, Joel Rucker, Morten Köhler, Joshua Wieder, Leonard Berger, Marvin Preis, Benjamin Schul, Neyla Fritz, Dr. Dietmar von der Ahe, Rebecca Zenker, Hanna
Schmidt-Dege, Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf, Sophia Rogosch. Not pictured are participants Teresa Dinges and Mats Egbring.

26. February 2019

Electronics and Programming in Elective Classes

Digitalization & AI, News, STEM

As part of the elective course (WU), the offerings in the area of technology and computers were expanded this school year. Students in grades 8 and 9 had the opportunity to carry out their own electronics projects using Arduino microcontrollers. Arduino, according to Malte Klimczak, the teacher in charge, in his report, is an open-source electronics prototyping platform for flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It is primarily used by artists, designers, tinkerers, and hobbyists to bring creative ideas to life.

Various sensors (e.g., temperature, motion, light, etc.), as well as LEDs, motors, buttons, and displays, can be connected to the microcontroller. The individual components are controlled through simple programming. This allows students to create small interactive objects in a short amount of time. Among other things, the students have built a small robot that follows the light of a flashlight, a car controlled via Bluetooth and a smartphone, and a digital thermometer. In addition, a group of students independently developed a motor control system for a remote-controlled model airplane.

Analytical thinking is developed

The focus was not only on programming microcontrollers, but also on the practical assembly of electronic circuits. In particular, students can develop technical skills and acquire competencies in computer science and programming. Logical and analytical thinking are honed and applied in real-world situations. This program builds on physics and project-based learning and serves as a valuable supplement.

The semester concluded with a visit to the so-called “Robotikum” at Philipps University of Marburg, located on the grounds of the Adolf-Reichwein School. During the three-day workshop, the students had the opportunity to try out NAO-type humanoid robots. The robots can walk, speak, and interact with the people around them. Artificial intelligence makes these diverse interactions possible.

During the internship, the students had the opportunity to develop and test dialogues, movements, and facial recognition with the robots. The goal was not only to become familiar with the robots and understand how they work, but also to improve their own algorithmic thinking, which is particularly important in today’s digital world.

21. February 2019

Team Steinmühle/Philippinum Won the Math Competition

Contests & Awards, News, STEM

Students from Steinmühle and Philippinum were named the best team in Hesse in their grade level at the international Bolyai Mathematics Competition. In the 5th-grade category, Steinmühle students Sophia Rogosch and Teresa Katharina Dinges won alongside Jonathan Hundt and Leo Yu’an (both from Philippinum). We extend our heartfelt congratulations on this shared success!

The competition’s motto is: “The ability to collaborate is a core value in our lives.” What makes this competition so appealing is that students, working in teams of four within the allotted 60-minute time frame, can discuss both the problems and the provided solutions and skillfully divide up the work. What makes it particularly challenging is that, out of the five answer choices provided for each question, several may be correct. In one of the tasks, all five provided answers were actually correct. Of course, our math whizzes recognized this. Great job! Congratulations!

11. February 2019

Aliena, Paula, and Velten were the best at math

Contests & Awards, News, STEM

In this year’s mandatory math assessment for 8th graders—the “Hesse State Math Competition”—Aliena Eutebach (8a), Paula Auschill (8a), and Velten Schulz (8c) were the school winners at Steinmühle. Out of a possible 48 points, Aliena scored 45, Paula 44.5, and Velten 41.5. All three will participate in the second round of the competition on March 7 at the Elisabethschule. We wish them the best of luck!

At the certificate presentation ceremony on February 1, Paula, Aliena, and Velten (from left to right) received their certificates.

9. February 2019

Project-Based Learning: Measuring the World—Mathematics in Practice

News, STEM

“How tall is the linden tree in our schoolyard?” The 9th-grade students answered this question together with trainees from the Marburg Office of Land Management (AfB) during the “Measuring the World” project-based learning session at Steinmühle. This collaboration between the professional world and the school has a long tradition. It took place for the ninth time and reached more than 200 students.

To measure the height of the schoolyard linden tree, the students set up an electronic tachymeter in the courtyard and used it to take precise measurements of the tree. Trainees Ronja Gies and Joshua Fedler from AfB Marburg had brought this professional measuring device with them. It is a measuring instrument that records horizontal directions (angles), vertical angles, and slant distances. Using the measurements and formulas from “plane trigonometry” (calculating unknown sides and angles in any plane triangle), the students calculated the height of the tree. The two trainees assisted them and answered their questions.

It didn’t take long for the students to come up with the answer: “The linden tree is 13.81 meters tall—so about 14 meters! That’s hardly any different from the height we measured with our school theodolites,” the students said. In the theoretical part of the lesson, the trainees from AfB Marburg asked the students where they had already encountered geodata—that is, data related to the Earth—in their daily lives. They then explained that the Earth is by no means a perfect sphere and covered everything from the Earth as a disk to a sphere, and on to the geoid and ellipsoid. This was followed by a brief historical overview of the Kurhessian Triangulation (1821–1839) and the work of the mathematician, astronomer, and physicist Christian Ludwig Gerling (July 10, 1788 – January 15, 1864) at the University of Marburg.

Geodata Relevant to Public Policy

“Today, geodata plays a key role in about 80 percent of all political decisions,” said Jörg Lipphardt, a trainer at AfB Marburg. Lipphardt introduced the students to the apprenticeship program for geomatics technicians and provided information about the promising career prospects for high school graduates at the Hessian Administration for Land Management and Geoinformation (HVBG), as well as future opportunities in the field of geoinformation.

In the “Project-Based Learning” core course at Steinmühle, students explore various topics through project-based work, engaging with the material in an action-oriented and hands-on manner. Incorporating a practical component with experts into the “Measuring the World” project was the wish of math and biology teacher Malte Klimczak, who conceived the project a few years ago together with his colleague Nicole Scholtes and approached the AfB Marburg with the idea.

“What better way is there to help students understand the value of learning than by interacting with experts for whom trigonometry is a daily tool? Motivation to learn comes naturally,” said Steffen Ullwer, the class’s project teacher.

“From our perspective, it’s actually a perfect example of a win-win situation,” the trainees added. “We had to prepare for today, and in doing so, we were able to review material that will be covered in our exam later on.”

6. February 2019

Math Olympiad: Jan Audretsch Takes Second Place in the National Round

Contests & Awards, News, STEM, Talent Development

Isn’t that amazing? At the national round of the 2018 Math Olympiad in Würzburg, Steinmühlen student Jan Audretsch (9th grade) took second place! Jan received a personal letter of congratulations from Hesse’s Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs, Prof. Dr. Alexander Lorz. The letter reads, in part: “In this mathematically challenging competition, you have demonstrated that you possess a high degree of abstract thinking and a wide range of mathematical methods.” We really couldn’t have put it better ourselves.
Dear Jan, Steinmühle is incredibly proud of you. It’s almost unbelievable to achieve such a high ranking! At the same time, however, we already know that this wasn’t your last competition success, and according to the school administration and your math teacher, Constanze Oestreicher-Gold, we’ll soon have even more good news to share about you. Huge congratulations! Keep up the great work—we’re rooting for you!

1. February 2019