On March 16, the annual Kangaroo Math Competition took place. This is a multiple-choice competition in which students have 75 minutes to correctly answer as many questions as possible across three difficulty levels. Correct answers are worth 3–5 points depending on the difficulty, but points are also deducted for incorrect answers. “So our students have to be very strategic in how they approach the test,” reports Julia Bernzen on behalf of the math department.
Once again, students from Steinmühle Elementary School and High School voluntarily participated in the Kangaroo Competition; this year, even more than last year—a total of 119 students in grades 3 through 9. Everyone receives a prize at the end of this competition, though grand prizes (1st–3rd place) are also awarded, as well as prizes for the “biggest kangaroo jump” (the longest streak of correct answers).The math department is particularly proud of the fantastic results, and once again, many of the main prize winners are from Steinmühle. Here are the names of our math whizzes, along with the prizes they won:

– Nika Jablonski from Class 4 for the longest kangaroo hop in the elementary school
– Johanna Fuchs, 5a, 3rd place
– Charlotte Hanefeld, 5a, 3rd prize
– Sophia Schlösser, 5a, 3rd prize
– Julian Alshut, 5c, 3rd prize
– Leonard Hilger, 5i, 3rd prize
– Johannes Stroth, 5i, 3rd prize
– Jana Nowakowski, 5i, 3rd Prize
– Anna-Lena Grießler, 6th grade, 1st Prize and the school’s longest Kangaroo jump
– Sophie Menzler, 6th grade, 2nd Prize
– Philian Merle, 6th grade, 2nd prize
– Orlando Geisel, 9c, 1st prize

The following people posed for the photographer:

Front row, from left to right: Charlotte Hanefeld, Sophia Schlösser, Johanna Fuchs, Jana Nowakowski, Nika Jablonski.

Middle row, from left to right: Anna-Lena Grießler, Philian Merle, Sophie Menzler, Leonard Hilger, Johannes Stroth, Julian Alshut.

Orlando Geisel was absent from the photo shoot.

(Back row, from left to right) Maximilian Moll, representing the Mathematics Student Council, and Björn Gemmer, representing the school administration, congratulated the students on their achievements.

We have reason to celebrate! The Steinmühle has won the Hopp Foundation’s school award—worth €2,500—for its commitment to STEM education as part of the “Jugend forscht” state competition.

The Hopp Foundation is committed to promoting young talent in STEM subjects and has been a key supporter of “Jugend Forscht” for many years. Since last year, the award has honored schools that are particularly committed to fostering talented students interested in science and technology, thereby making an important contribution to strengthening science and technology in Germany.
This generously endowed award is—in addition to being a recognition of achievement—of course also a welcome opportunity to significantly expand Steinmühle’s science equipment.
A prerequisite for participating in the competition was a detailed application letter in which a project by Steinmühle plus STEM students played a significant role.

Plus-MINT Project in cooperation with Philipps University of Marburg

In collaboration with the University of Marburg, a project idea was developed to study the Lahn River in the area of the restoration site at the Gisselberg Span. Dr. Christoph Reudenbach from the Department of Geoinformatics is actively supporting the plus-MINT students with his expertise. The idea is to develop an autonomous, sensor-equipped boat to minimize the need to enter the sensitive ecosystem in the Gisselberg span renaturation area. This platform is designed to semi-automatically measure water quality in the Lahn River and collect water samples.
The project is a great opportunity for the students to learn how to build complex devices and program them independently for research purposes, as well as to deepen their knowledge in the fields of robotics, programming, and environmental sciences.

Strong Commitment to Environmental Education

In recent years, students at Steinmühle have submitted numerous projects to “Jugend forscht” and have often achieved great success. This year, they won two second-place finishes and one first-place finish at the regional competitions; one project even won the state award for the best interdisciplinary project in Hesse.
In his laudatory speech, Mr. Oliver Karplak, the state competition director for “Jugend forscht,” specifically highlighted Steinmühle’s strong commitment to environmental education and environmental projects in recent years. This helps raise students’ awareness of environmental issues and encourages them to act in an environmentally conscious manner.

A big thank you

Steinmühle is very proud that its work in the STEM fields has been recognized with this award, and we would like to once again extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone involved. The Hopp Prize is a wonderful recognition of this work and an incentive for the future to continue raising our students’ awareness of the importance of STEM subjects and environmental issues, and to offer them opportunities to actively engage in building a sustainable future.

A great success for our very young researchers from 6th grade: By winning the regional competition in Gießen, they qualified for the state competition and were able to travel to Kassel for two days with their advisor, Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf, to present their research project there. And they won there, too.
, Anna-Lena Griesler (11), Maya Fischer (11), and Marlene Wagner (12) focused on making adhesives from natural sources (as we reported), and this involved a lot of chemistry. But since the three didn’t stop at just making the adhesives—they also built a device to test their tensile strength—engineering played a major role in this project as well. Their force measurements using digital force sensors ultimately fell within the realm of physics as well.
This multifaceted approach—that is, its interdisciplinary nature—impressed the jury. The continuous refinement of the experimental apparatus and the depth of understanding with which they analyzed the underlying processes impressed the judges. In addition, they were praised for their confidence during the presentation and, in particular, for their strong team spirit.

The depth of content is something that is also close to the heart of “Jugend forscht” advisor Dr. Jutta Töhl-Borsdorf. “The three of them had to explain the different adhesive properties of the various materials on the paper. Since paper is made of cellulose, that’s more of a topic from 12th-grade chemistry class. Natural adhesives are also rather complex molecules. But you can ‘break it down’ into simpler terms.” During the jury deliberations, the team was able to impress with their expertise and technical terms such as hydrophilic and hydrophobic, hydrogen bonding, and cohesion and adhesion failures.

It was also great to see the students interacting with students from other schools. One team, for example, had been working on an adhesive made from mistletoe berries. A sample was quickly provided and measured by the girls. However, this adhesive turned out not to be suitable for everyday use just yet.
The team’s best adhesive consists of starch, sugar, and a little vinegar, which breaks down the starch molecules into shorter chains.
Last but not least, the Steinmühlen team also took home the special “Materials and Substances” prize from the Institute of Materials Science at the University of Kassel. In total, this meant prize money of 300 € for the three young researchers, though Anna-Lena noted: “The money isn’t really important at all. Spending those two days with like-minded people was the best part.”

We are very proud of you. Congratulations!
Click here for the University of Kassel’s press release