Promoting enthusiasm for STEM subjects

The SimplyNano 2 project aims to foster enthusiasm among high school youth for STEM subjects. The SimplyNano 2 cases contain materials and documentation that allow students to conduct exciting experiments on nanotechnology and experience it as an interdisciplinary everyday technology. The project also aims to build a bridge between school and professional practice. For this reason, the introductory courses for teachers are always held at interesting company locations. With the Novartis Pavilion, Novartis AG offered an extremely exciting setting for holding the continuing education course on February 8, 2023.

Playful learning in the Novartis Pavilion

Opened in April 2022, the Novartis Pavilion is a meeting place for an exchange between industry and the population. The architecturally appealing building aims to create spaces where visitors can experience learning through play. Marcel Braun, head of the Novartis Pavilion, gave an overview of the attractive opportunities that the Novartis Pavilion offers for school class visits.

As a multimedia exhibition, the “Wonders of Medicine” exhibition invites visitors to playful discovery and provides an insight into drug research. In the ^SchoolHub, an interactive offer for school classes, the various job profiles are presented in addition to medical and scientific topics. An offer that met with great interest among the participants.

How does a smoke detector work?

The teachers were then able to carry out individual experiments from the experimental kit on their own in a post run. The air-cushion-forming plant Salvinia molesta was enthusiastically examined, or the adhesion of a cell phone to the gecko pad was tested. A smoke detector was used to explore the Tyndall effect. According to feedback from those present, the simple but illustrative experiments were found to be extremely exciting. With little material effort, the SimplyNano experiments can get students excited about inquiry-based learning. “Super exciting experiments with everyday materials” was one of the participants’ feedbacks.

Final spurt in the “Simply Nano 2 Northwest Switzerland” project

The continuing education course was the sixth of a total of eight courses in northwestern Switzerland. The remaining two course dates (22.02.23 and 22.03.23) also met with broad interest. Only single places are still available. In the introductory courses, teachers receive valuable introductions to the use of the entire learning medium (learning workshop for learners, documents for teachers and USB stick) in addition to the experimental part.

As part of the “Northwestern Switzerland” project, all secondary schools in the cantons of BS, BL and SO are being equipped with class sets of a total of 900 SimplyNano 2 experiment cases. The project is funded by 39 partners. Novartis AG supports the project as a Gold Partner.

Source: Innovation Society
Image source: novartis