New drive for Sensor Space Project: BMBF funding

In a society that focusses on innovation and sustainability, the need for talented STEM youngsters is of crucial importance. There are now over 130 regional networks across Germany known as STEM regions.

The "MINT Region East" in Thuringia is home to the Student Research Centre Gera, the Student Research Centre Jena/witelo e.V. and the Children's and Youth Mi(N)T Lab Sensor Space, a project of TRIDELTA CAMPUS Hermsdorf. We are firmly convinced that high-quality, illustrative and practical STEM education is best achieved locally when all those involved - from daycare centres and primary schools to tinkering workshops, companies and associations - pull together.

Congratulations to the Sensor Space!
Thanks to the recently approved funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), this collaboration in the region will be further strengthened. Over the next two years, Sensor Space will be able to further expand its STEM programme thanks to this funding. New ideas for participation and involvement in rural areas are being implemented through the "Digital Change in Education, Science and Research" funding programme in the STEM Cluster Young People 1 funding area: together with our partners, we will make mobile environmental sensor kits more widely available as part of this funding.  The STEM learning opportunities in the region are also being analysed and evaluated.

In addition to the existing offerings for schools, such as loan materials and training for teachers as well as project support, the mobile Sensor Space Mobil offering will be significantly expanded and consolidated. Gaps in STEM education in rural areas can be minimised thanks to the extracurricular offerings from the Sensor Space project. Our courses and events for micro-electronics, high-performance ceramics, software and technical skills will inspire pupils, interested parties and anyone who is curious to get to know the wide range of activities offered by Sensor Space and to realise their own project ideas.

Each network is as unique as the regions themselves, characterised by different geographical, political and financial circumstances. Around the traditional STEM offerings in the two student research centres and the Sensor Space project, a diverse STEM offering structure is created. What unites them all are long-term partnerships, jointly defined strategic goals and an unwavering focus on their respective regions. We look forward to the new project term!

Participants and sponsors include:

- (Office and members of) TRIDELTA CAMPUS Hermsdorf e.V.
- Prof Dr Timm Wilke, Director of the Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry at Friedrich Schiller University Jena
- STIFT (Foundation for Technology, Innovation and Research Thuringia), in particular through the cooperation of the Gera Student Research Centre (Susanne Eckardt)
- District of Saale-Holzland

Thanks also go to all personal supporters of the project.