On Saturday, 14. May, Paderborn University invited school pupils and everyone else who was interested to the campus for its “MINT Marathon”. Starting at 9 a.m., there were workshops, laboratory tours, an escape game, hands-on experiments and many other events that gave visitors an insight into all degree courses in the fields of mathematics, IT, natural sciences and technology (MINT for short – similar to STEM in English) – and an opportunity to try their hand in this diverse field.
During the all-day programme, visitors of all ages were given a fascinating glimpse at topics such as AI, IT security or sustainability. For example, they could develop new computer games at a programming workshop, use ultrasound measuring to record their own movements, or visit Paderborn’s high-performance computing centre to admire the new supercomputer “Noctua 2”.
It was “Curtain up!” for science at the Science Slam organised by the der Faculty of Mechanical Engineering: in vivid talks lasting seven minutes, scientists presented their research results in plain, jargon-free language. Visitors were also invited to attend the traditional Chemistry Christmas Lecture – which was cancelled due to coronavirus restrictions in the past couple of years and now rescheduled as part of the MINT Marathon – and marvel at the impressive experiments and trials conducted by Dr. Andreas Hoischen and his team.
At the two-hour “MINT Sprint” event, teams from schools in Paderborn competed against each other in a quiz: a group of four contestants – one male teacher, one female teacher, one male student and one female student – from the Sixth Form of each school answered questions from a panel of experts to determine which school had the greatest MINT expertise. 10. May was the application deadline for schools wishing to enter a team for the “MINT Sprint” quiz, with a prize of up to 500 euros towards their leaving prom as an incentive. The event was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, (BMBF), MINT4OWL, Die Matiker e.V. and dSpace.
