“MI(N)T Bewegung ans Ziel” (Engl. “Reaching the Goal with STEM and Movement”) was the motto of this year’s career orientation day “Zukunftstag” (Engl. “Future Day”) at Miesbach Gymnasium in Upper Bavaria, Germany, organized by Innovationsmanufaktur GmbH. Under the project management of Berit Warnecke and Dominik Wedber and in close cooperation with the Gymnasium Miesbach under the leadership of the high school’s principle Rainer Dlugosch, an exciting programme was offered to 90 students from the 9th grade in ages between 13 and 16 years.
Instead of “dry” frontal and theoretical classroom education, a new approach to STEM topics ([natural] sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics) was taught through athletic and physically engaging movements. “At the end of the day, every student understood the connection between STEM and [physical] movements,” Dlugosch commented on the success of the program. By participating in the event, the students were able to experience and understand the physics of throwing, ball kicking, jumping and climbing in a total of eight so-called “movement modules”, as well as they learnt about even more complex analysis methods from high-performance sports.
There was also political support for the innovative concept. Ilse Aigner, acting president of the Bavarian state parliament and CSU deputy of the voting region Miesbach, welcomed the students as patron of the career orientation day: “I am myself an electrical engineer and I am delighted about this exciting event, which also strengthens the district in its attributes as an education and STEM region”, and added: “Creative and practical, accompanied by having fun and joy – we need many more projects of this kind in Germany […] Projects like these are incredibly important for sustainable learning, so that the learning content really gets embedded in students’ minds.”
Ambassadors of the movement modules, who came from public and private institutions all over Germany were:
· German Basketball Federation e.V.: “Basketball – Shot Science”
· Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS from Erlangen: “Pulse measurement via camera and fitnessSHIRT”.
· Institute for Applied Training Science from Leipzig: “Movement Analyses”
· Olympic Training-Center of Bavaria from Munich: “Optojump”
· rock-motion.de – Mobile Climbing Walls from Weyarn in Upper Bavaria: “Secured Climbing”
· Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institute of Geophysics and Extraterrestrial Physics: “Banana Flank” and “Who Throws the Best Parable?”
· Technical University of Munich, Associate Professorship of Biomechanics in sports TUM Department of Sport and Health Sciences: “Jump Diagnostics KMP”.