Celebrating the 5th anniversary of Kleine Forscher Hamburg (from left to right): Bettina Schmidt (Kleine Forscher Hamburg), Margret Lohmann (Stiftung Kinder forschen), Kay Petersen (Authority for Labor, Health, Social Affairs, Family and Integration), Beate Heinemann (DESY), Inken Stobbe (Stiftung Kinder forschen). Photo: DESY, Marta Mayer
On June 18, the "Kleinen Forscher Hamburg" ("Little Scientists Hamburg") network celebrated its 5th birthday at DESY together with representatives of the social authorities, the "Little Scientists Foundation", daycare providers and associations as well as educational specialists and cooperation partners.
The "Kleinen Forscher Hamburg" play an important role for DESY and the city of Hamburg," says Beate Heinemann, DESY Director of Particle Physics. "For DESY, people are the most important thing, especially people who are curious and creative and want to explore the world. That is why it is so important to encourage this curiosity and creativity in children, so that one day we will also have great researchers who can solve the big questions and problems facing humanity "
"Kleine Forscher Hamburg" primarily offers training courses aimed at educational professionals and teachers in Hamburg's daycare centers and elementary school (especially afternoon care). The topics come from the fields of mathematics, computer science, natural sciences, technology (STEM) and education for sustainable development (ESD) and are always based on children's everyday lives. An overview can be found on the website www.kleine-forscher-hamburg.de. Since its launch at DESY, the network has processed almost 2000 applications. Almost 200 daycare centers and elementary school took part in a training course for the first time, and many specialists come back to the training courses again and again in order to continuously improve their knowledge.
The project started with Judith Trechsler and Bettina Schmidt at DESY on January 1, 2019; Valeria Wagner joined in 2022 to support the Hamburg Mathematics Project. In this project, a training course was developed that deals with mathematics in children's everyday lives: Where exactly can mathematics be found in children's play and everyday life? How can these activities be well accompanied by language? How can spaces and situations be mathematically enriched? This training course also includes a hidden object picture and a brochure that will be made available to all daycare centers in Hamburg and can also be used by interested parents (see also: www.kleine-forscher-hamburg.de/fortbildungen/spielen-bauen-und-sortieren).
A special feature of the "Kleine Forscher Hamburg" is the wide range of collaborations with important Hamburg institutions, such as joint training courses with the Hamburger Kunsthalle at the interface of STEM and art, family activities with the Hamburger Bücherhallen and hands-on activities for children as part of the Seiteneinsteiger reading festival together with the DESY library.
