In order to encourage junior scientists, the Technology Forum developed a special Schools Programme: Each year 120 senior pupils now are given the opportunity to experience science and technology research up close. 

The Schools Programme is supervised by Prof. Dr. Johannes Huber (see also the BAdW peoples pages)

Organisation and contact: Maja Bechtold (E-Mail)

Technology influences our lives today not only in matters of communication, mobility and energy supply, but also with regard to career and leisure. Modern technologies though are highly complex and their functioning almost not comprehensible any more. And that is exactly the reason, why it is becoming ever more difficult to get young people enthusiastic regarding relevant studies. Educating highly qualified junior staff in natural sciences and engineering is a prerequisite though for the future viability of modern societies.

The Technology Forum’s Schools Programme enables talented young people, to become much more closely involved with current issues in natural sciences and engineering than the average school life may allow for. Every year about 100 Bavarian senior pupils from high schools and specialised secondary schools are invited to attend a one-and-a-half day information programme.

In the run-up, schools – evenly distributed across the seven Bavarian counties plus the greater Munich area – are being asked to nominate one female and one male student who have excelled in the so-called MINT subjects (mathematics, information science, natural sciences and technology). Since 2019, also some pupils are invited, who participated successfully in the regional "Youth research" competitions.

Touring high-ranking research institutions in the greater Munich area is a core activity within the Schools Programme, as well as attending the scientific symposia organised by the Technology Forum. It is seen again and again that the enthusiasm portrayed by the researchers both for their specific discipline and their individual research does have a great impact on the students, communicating important impulses for their own choice of study and profession.

Fotos von Führungen 2024: (c) BAdW/Kai Neunert.

Bei einem gemeinsamen Abendessen am 11. April 2024 im Gasthof Neuwirt, Garching, erhielten die ca. 90 Schülerinnen und Schüler durch Prof. Rudolf Gross einen ersten Einblick in die Welt der Quanten“. Am nächsten Vormittag ging das Programm am Forschungszentrum Garching weiter mit jeweils 45-minütigen Fachführungen am Walther-Meissner-Institut für Tieftemperaturforschung (WMI) der BAdW, am Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik und am Leibniz-Rechenzentrum (LRZ) der BAdW. Nach einem Mittagsimbiss am LRZ fuhren die Schülerinnen und Schüler nach München zu dem öffentlichen Symposium des Forums Technologie zum Thema „Quantentechnologien: Erwartungen an eine wichtige Zukunftstechnologie”.

Das Forum Technologie dankt an dieser Stelle allen an den Führungen Beteiligen, die mit viel Engagement den Vormittag geplant und gestaltet haben und denen es gelungen ist, ihre komplexen Forschungsprojekte den Schülerinnen und Schülern anschaulich und spannend nahezubringen. Ein herzlicher Dank gilt auch Frau Tyroller und dem Event-Team des LRZ für die Organisation des Mittagsimbisses.

The Schools Programme is facilitated by generous support from the Academy’s Foundation funds.