20 years of promoting science in the school lab
Experiments that are designed to spark an interest in science: This is what the HZB School Lab has stood for over the past 20 years. © Rasche/ Netzwerk GenaU
38,000 visitors in 20 years: high demand shows need for science education
Twenty years ago, on 29 November 2004, Klaus Böger, then Senator for Education in Berlin, opened one of the capital's first school laboratories. Since then, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), in cooperation with the Berlin Senate, has successfully promoted science education through project days and further training in the school lab.
The HZB School Lab offers hands-on project days for grades 5 to 13 on current research topics such as solar energy, light and colours, and materials research. During the project days, students work in small groups to carry out experiments independently. They are supervised by teachers, scientists and students. The teachers working in the School Lab are funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family and are released from their teaching duties for this work.
With around 38,000 visitors over the last 20 years, the demand for such additional science teaching facilities is clearly evident. Thomas Frederking, HZB's commercial director, says: "For 20 years, the School Lab has not only given children and young people an insight into our research, it has also encouraged them to take up scientific careers. In view of the shortage of specialists in these fields, the social value of this commitment is obvious."
In addition to project days for young students, the School Lab also offers trainings for teachers to demonstrate new ways of enriching science lessons. In addition, particularly interested and talented kids and teenagers are supported in two working groups.
"The experiments in the School Lab help to develop critical thinking in young people," says Dr Ulrike Witte, head of the School Lab. "Many school kids only know experiments from YouTube videos - here they experience that experimenting is exciting and not so difficult’. The HZB School Lab will continue to inspire young people's interest in science with a variety of activities in the coming years.
School lab in figures
- 2004: Opening of the school laboratory in Berlin-Wannsee
- 2010: Opening of the second site in Berlin-Adlershof
- 38,000 visitors in 20 years
- Supervision of 100 student trainees
- Training for over 800 teachers
The Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie is a renowned research centre of the Helmholtz Association. It explores and develops new materials and technologies that will make a contribution to a climate-neutral energy supply in the future. HZB is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (90 per cent) and the State of Berlin (10 per cent). The establishment of the school laboratory in 2004 was also supported by the Helmholtz Association with 340,000 euros.
- Long-term test shows: Efficiency of perovskite cells varies with the seasonScientists at HZB run a long-term experiment on the roof of a building at the Adlershof campus. They expose a wide variety of solar cells to the weather conditions, recording their performance over a period of years. These include perovskite solar cells, a new photovoltaic material offering high efficiency and low manufacturing costs. Dr Carolin Ulbrich and Dr Mark Khenkin evaluated four years of data and presented their findings in Advanced Energy Materials. This is the longest series of measurements on perovskite cells in outdoor use to date. The scientists found that standard perovskite solar cells perform very well during the summer months, even over several years, but decline in efficiency during the darker months.
- Sodium-ion batteries: New storage mechanism for cathode materialsLi-ion and Na-ion batteries operate through a process called intercalation, where ions are stored and exchanged between two chemically different electrodes. In contrast, co-intercalation, a process in which both ions and solvent molecules are stored simultaneously, has traditionally been considered undesirable due to its tendency to cause rapid battery failure. Against this traditional view, an international research team led by Philipp Adelhelm has now demonstrated that co-intercalation can be a reversible and fast process for cathode materials in Na-ion batteries. The approach of jointly storing ions and solvents in cathode materials provides a new handle for designing batteries with high efficiency and fast charging capabilities. The results are published in Nature Materials.
- 10 million euros in funding for UNITE – Startup Factory Berlin-BrandenburgUNITE – Startup Factory Berlin-Brandenburg has been recognised by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy as one of ten nationwide flagship projects for science-based start-ups. UNITE is to be established as a central transfer platform for technology-driven spin-offs from science and industry in the capital region. The Helmholtz Centre Berlin will also benefit from this.