MINT Learning Center - ETH Zürich

Scientific Directors: Dr. Ralph Schumacher (contact), Prof. Dr. Elsbeth Stern, Prof. Dr. Andreas Vaterlaus

The aim of the MINT Learning Center (German version) consists in improving science education at school in the MINT areas so that students gain a better general education about the natural sciences and are better qualified for studies and professions in the natural sciences and technology.

"MINT" stands for mathematics, informatics, natural sciences, and technics. The MINT-Learning Center is part of the ETH competence center for learning and instruction, EducETH.

In the MINT-Learning center, scientists and teachers are closely cooperating to develop teaching units on central topics from physics, chemistry, and informatics. These teaching units are developed on the basis of recent empirical research on learning and instruction. Hence, cognitively activating forms of learning such as prompts for self-explanations, instructions for metacognitive questions, and inquiry learning are integrated into these teaching units.


.

---

PhysiScope: Au défi de passionner les jeunes - Motivating young generations for physics

The PhysiScope is a MaNEP- initiated outreach project, developed in collaboration with the Physics Section of the University of Geneva. The PhysiScope is a public demo-lab where physics is presented in a very lively way through hands-on experiments and discussions that illustrate the laws of physics while allowing the visitor to understand some of the greatest issues of today's research : superconductivity, the CERN's large particles collider, renewable energies, nanotechnologies, the discovery of new planets, and much more.

The PhysiScope has been undergoing a testing phase since October 2007, with some 40 classes of high-school students visiting. It has been officially inaugurated on 3 October 2008, in the presence of Charles Beer, head of the Geneva Public Education Department (DIP). This initiative is made possible thanks to various public and private donations.
 

---

ChimiScope: Laboratoire de découverte et d’expérimentation - Discovering and experimenting

Chimiscope has multiple objectives:

• Motivating young people for science and giving them a technical understanding of our society and the world that surrounds us.
• Presenting the importance of chemistry in our society.
• Communicating researchers' enthusiasm for the science of molecules and emphasizing the exiting career perspectives in chemistry, notably in Geneva companies, through science studies at the University of Geneva.
• Promoting the excellence of chemistry in Geneva, both academic and industrial.

Visits to Chimiscope enable you to experience demonstrations about the basic foundations of the science of molecules, and to discover the application and impact of molecules in everyday life, in a playful, friendly and educational format.


 

---

.

go tec Jugendlabor

Der Fachkräftemangel im technischen Bereich beschäftigt schon heute viele Schaffhauser Gewerbe- und Industriebetriebe. Das hat die Industrie- und Wirtschafts-Vereinigung Schaffhausen IVS vor drei Jahren dazu bewogen, mit dem Projekt Berufseinstieg – Fachkräftemangel Gegensteuer zu geben.

Zusammen mit dem Erziehungsdepartement und der Wirtschaftsförderung des Kantons Schaffhausen hat die IVS deshalb die Initiative go tec! ins Leben gerufen, um Technik einer breiten Zielgruppe näherzubringen. Einerseits soll das Interesse an der Faszination Technik bei Kindern und Jugendlichen geweckt werden und andererseits die Vielfalt an Berufseinstiegs- und Aufstiegsmöglichkeiten der Karriere Technik für Jugendliche in der Berufswahl und Hochschulabsolventen sowie deren Eltern und Lehrpersonen aufgezeigt werden.