Projects

The education and upbringing of children and young people is always about our future. A future that is characterized by rapid technological progress, increasing global crises and great unpredictability. In addition, the innovative strength of our society depends to a large extent on the success of new and technological developments and their broad application. This requires sufficient and well-trained natural science and STEM specialists. Since 2014, teaching has been based on Curriculum21, which gives STEM more weight. However, many schools and teachers are still very challenged by this. This is precisely where mint & pepper comes in with the new "Nanomed 4 life" workshop: Through the interdisciplinary approach, young people from the age of 12 experience the relevance of scientific thinking in the successful development of new technologies and their many possible applications. Young women in particular are enthusiastic about the meaningful application of STEM topics and the contribution they can make to society with the help of, for example, basic physics or programming. Through the practical approach of developing solutions to real-life challenges, young people can discover their own skills and talents on very different levels. For these reasons, the workshop takes up a concrete problem from the clinic - the minimization of permanent damage after brain strokes. The young people work in teams to find solutions for navigating a magnetic catheter in the body. This makes it possible to dissolve blood clots in the brain. In doing so, the young people learn in a practical and creative way what a relevant contribution STEM sciences can make to overcoming today's medical challenges and saving lives. Another important aspect is the transfer from research and the associated scientific development process to a marketable product. The workshop, which is aligned with Curriculum21, will be carried out by trained students and learners as part of testing from August 2024 in schools and leisure activities. They will act as role models, providing new perspectives for young people's career and training choices. From summer 2025, the workshop will be scaled from 400 young people reached to 600. At the end of the project in 2026, the workshop will be included in mint & pepper's long-term workshop offering and the number of young people reached will continue to increase. In addition to the young people, the teachers will also benefit by receiving new impetus for teaching scientific thinking. The workshop thus acts as an innovation hub in schools and makes a lasting contribution to strengthening science and STEM teaching in schools.