Click to enlarge the pictures of the articles.
We welcome teachers from four countries!
Paderborn's mayor, Michael Dreier, welcomed teachers from four European countries who met as part of the Erasmus Plus Project „Inspiring Studies and Future Careers“. This project supports those schools with a particular focus on their students' career plans by offering modern project-based teaching methods in STEM subjects as well as individual mentoring. STEM subjects enjoy the mayor's notable support who confirms that Paderborn and its industries, including schools und universities, honour the close cooperation of industries and schools. As part of the programme, teachers of the Friedrich-Spee-Comprehensive School and some of their students will visit Finland, Estonia and Spain to gain more experience and learn from each other. (RycT)
With the support of ErasmusPlus Friedrich-Spee-Gesamtschule offered extra courses in STEM subjects and applied to be a STEM school. First you have to apply and report about STEM activities in school. Then a audition takes place and at least you get the certificate. This article is about the celebration.
Friedrich Spee now STEM school
Network further expanded / celebration in Düsseldorf
Paderborn. In Düsseldorf, the certification ceremony for the network of excellence MINT School of the NRW (BWNRW) and the state association of the business associations NRW took place. Minister Sylvia Löhrmann, together with Dietmar Meder, chairman of the educational institute, handed over ten schools with the seal of quality STEM school NRW.
The Friedrich-Spee-Gesamtschule Paderborn is now one of the five national certified schools with a wide range of STEM offers (STEM is mathematics, natural sciences and technology, and also includes offers for professional preparation).
Spee students can participate in a STEM workshop, produce precision parts with a computer-controlled milling machine, participate in competitions in mathematics, physics, computer science and technology and have the opportunity to complete an internship at partner schools in Finland or Estonia.
In the European educational project Erasmus Plus, "Inspiring Studies and Future Careers", Spee students will meet young people from Estonia, Finland, Croatia and Spain to find out how to prepare best for career or study.
And here as well, MINT education provides key competencies (more on www.speepb.de).
The STEM SCHOOL NRW network comprises a total of 76 schools, 13 of which are Hauptschulen, 43 Realschulen and 20 Gesamtschulen. The network offers a wide range of support for pupils, teachers and school leaders who are supported by "entrepreneur nrw".
© 2015 Neue Westfälische, Paderborn (district), Thursday, June 4th, 2015
Computer Museum as a place of learning for pupils
Collaboration: Friedrich-Spee-Gesamtschule and Heinz-Nixdorf-Museumforum cooperate. In the Computermuseum, among other things, fifth-graders will be introduced to teambuilding in the future.
Paderborn. The Heinz-Nixdorf-Museumforum (HNF) is the destination for classtrips of hundreds of schools in a year. Now Friedrich-Spee-Gesamtschule Paderborn has signed a cooperation agreement with the HNF to deepen the cooperation.
Headmaster Lothar Schlegel and HNF Managing Director Kurt Beiersdörfer signed an agreement which provides the HNF as an attractive extra-curricular location for the pupils of the comprehensive school. "We are delighted that we can underline the qualification as a STEM school NRW", emphasized Schlegel after signing the contract. This is intended to promote the competence of pupils in the area of culture and information, and in particular interest in mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology (STEM).
"The HNF has been involved in intensifying cooperation with schools for a number of years. The Spee School is the fourth school with which we have agreed so close cooperation, and others will follow," added Beiersdörfer.
In the future, students of year 5 will have to follow the footsteps of Heinz Nixdorf on a project day and be familiarized with the foundations of team building at the Ahorn Sportpark. In addition, the visit of a module for regenerative energy in the cool STEM laboratory is on the agenda.
The cooperative coolMINT.paderborn, which is run jointly by the HNF and the University of Paderborn, is the focus of the cooperation. Students of almost all grades will therefore visit the student lab in their specific compulsory subjects and take appropriate courses. For example, the participants in the teaching methodology will work on mechanical engineering in the student laboratory or a "Spurtmobil". The history teachers of the comprehensive will elaborate a project connected with the visit to the museum.
This may also concern the name of the school and the link to the HNF because it was Heinz Nixdorf, who gave one of his foundations the name Friedrich (von) Spee.
© 2016 New Westphalian, 15 - Paderborn (district), Wednesday 18 May 2016
So close to heaven
STEM project group of the Friedrich-Spee-Gesamtschule sends balloon in stratosphere
From Besim Ma z h i q i
P a d e r b o r n (WV). Carefully, Kira slides the long cord from the hand. In the next moment it is already time: A stratospheric balloon is unstoppable the way to heaven.
Unstoppable?
Screams from the ninth graders of the Friedrich-Spee-Gesamtschule. Everyone holds the breath. The wind is pushing the balloon towards the flagpole. Half a year of work, intensive study of the atmospheric boundary and the conditions, the construction of a probe, which is supposed to supply measured data on air pressure, humidity and temperature up to 35 000 meters high, are threatened to be destroyed in the collision seconds after the start.
"Ahhhhh," Kira shouts - and it helps. The balloon filled with 3600 liters of helium scarcely bypasses the mast. Happy respite from pupils and teachers. Also with Benjamin Eke, the physics and math teacher, who worked on the project with the pupils. "The group has calculated that the temperature can fall quickly to minus 60 degrees," says the 30-year-old. Also the air pressure sinks, causing the balloon to be around a diameter of approximately
ten meters. And then? "Then it bursts," says student Vanessa. And hopefully, after a few hours at an incredible height, it will safely come down on a parachute again. Where, the students learn by SMS:
"The probe is not only equipped with measuring instruments, but also with a GPS transmitter. When it calls, he sends us his position on the phone, "says Eke.
The project group is also attracted to the video material, which shows the ballooning. The HD recordings will later provide spectacular images. "It's exciting to see the earth curvature," says Kira.
The paperless work during the project was also exciting. "All the students have only worked with tablets," reports Jürgen Gärtner, didactic director. The project was made possible by a donation from the Sparda Bank of 1000 euros. After the evaluation of the data, the results are to be exhibited at the school.
Students conquer the stratosphere, Exceptional project of the Friedrich-Spee-Gesamtschule
Paderborn. Spectacular experiment: ninth graders elective course Natural sciences of the Friedrich-Spee-Gesamtschule and their physics teacher Benjamin Eke launched a balloon into the stratosphere.
With the small styroporket under the balloon, sensors, a GPS data logger and an HD video camera were sent up. In the meantime, the first data are evaluated: The balloon filled with helium reached a peak of 20,000 meters. Then the balloon cover, which had expanded to about 12 meters because of the low pressure in the high altitude, rushed past the camera lens with the opened parachute.
On the ground, the students waited anxiously for a signal from the capsule. They had calculated that the balloon needed about two hours for the entire trip. A GPS device on board could send its position via SMS to the search team. The remains of the balloon and the capsule had descended at village Polle near Weser river 70 km from the starting point. The search began. In a forest area near Bervorde: Vanessa Klein, David Bergmann and Niklas Neugum were combing the forest. The coordinates had been transferred to sensitive outdoor GPS devices. Niklas finally caught sight of the red parachute in the tree crown of an oak, Vanessa discovered the connecting cord to the capsule on a beech and the capsule about 28 meters above the forest floor.
"No chance to get it," David said. Followed by detective work :, finding foresters, looking for forest owners, weighing alternatives, asking tree climbers or tree cutting? The forest owner hesitated. No good time to cut a tree. Finally, all parties agreed: the school bought the tree and let it fall.
Camera and data logger had survived the trip undamaged. In the next school year the data can be evaluated. The Sparda Bank project sponsored the project costing around € 1,000. More pictures and a video can be found on the homepage of the school www.speepb.de.
Calculating with the robot, Science Days at the Fürstenallee again a visitor magnet
By Manfred S t i e n e k e, P a d e r b o r n (WV).
The fact that science and technology can also make fun have experienced several thousand visitors at the seventh Paderborn Science Days. Children, young people and adults were able to look and participate along the »mile of the future« or simply be astonished at clever experimental setups.
Teams from the university, schools, the HNF or other institutions presented their instructive and sometimes astonishing projects. The student laboratory "Cool Mint" had brought along his robot "Nao", who can not only walk and wave, but also can talk and count. The performance of different wind turbine rotors, the energy efficiency of various lamps, or the speed of a downhill wooden railroad track could be tested and measured by children.
Gymnasium Schloss Neuhaus used a hydrogen-powered "Mars-Rover", and the Spee-Gesamtschule documented the flight of a helium balloon, which had been airborne up to 20,000 meters high. The recovery of the data device was then difficult because the balloon cover caught in a forest in the branches of a 30 meter high beech. "We bought the tree and dropped it", explains physics teacher Dirk Beckert.
In the outdoor area of the HNF, the youngest could sit in an electrically powered bobby car. The electricity was supplied by a solar trailer. At the end of the Science Days, young researchers from the university are presenting the »Science in small bites« at the Heinz Nixdorf Institute at the Fürstenallee. In 14 generally comprehensible short presentations, the audience gets an insight into current research areas. Westfälisches Volksblatt 27.06.2016