15 Years of the Education Initiative
Education at LANXESS - for 15 Years
Since 2008, LANXESS has been aiming to get schoolchildren excited about chemistry and other natural sciences, while at the same time giving them an insight into our working world. This combination of content and perspectives is intended to encourage and motivate young people to take up a career in the chemical industry or other industries. After all, these form the backbone of Germany as a business location.
Sugar cubes, safety goggles, sand...
11 years ago, we equipped numerous elementary schools with our experimental kit, a project of the education initiative. The younger, the more curious and interested in new things. According to this motto, we developed the suitcase together with the Cornelsen publishing house and the TU Dortmund University. It contains all the basics needed for a small experimental set-up, something that is often missing at elementary schools. More than nearly 1,000 experiment kits have been handed out to elementary schools around LANXESS sites worldwide since 2012.
The contents of the suitcase equip an entire class and are designed so that students can use the suitcase together t . It can be used to conduct the basic experiments and tests of elementary school chemistry. Adapted to the elementary school and the curriculum of the various federal states, a varied lesson design from group work to work at stations is still possible. Exactly so that the students do not get bored!
The suitcase has not only found a home at the German LANXESS sites, but is also in use around the world, as students from the following countries have been able to use it to gain a little insight into the world of chemistry:
- Argentina
- Australia
- Belgium
- China
- Canada
- France
- India
- Japan
- Netherlands
- Singapore
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Spain
- Thailand
- United Kingdom
In April 2011, LANXESS arranged an educational program for the partnership with Save the Children India for about 50 students from the organization's three grades 5, 6 and 7. On an escorted field trip to the Nehru Science Centre in Worli, Mumbai, the children learned about various laws of science outside of school through three interactive shows and a tour of the Nehru Center.
To spark interest in the world of chemistry among children in elementary school, LANXESS worked with Care-Line Bildungsprojekte GmbH in 2014 to develop teaching materials. These are based on the curricula for elementary school science lessons. LANXESS published the following material:
- Lanny erkundet die Welt
- Lanny – Arbeitswelt gestern, heute, morgen
In the 64 pages of the workbook "Lanny erkundet die Welt", which means Lanny explores the world, the two characters Lanny and Professor Findig accompany the students through various topics such as mobility, globalization, urbanization and water. In 15 tasks, he shows them the "treasures of the world," explains that resources are not infinite, and points out the advantages and disadvantages of different means of transportation. Teachers can use the material to set up learning stations to reinforce what they have learned, in addition to practice tasks.
To help children gain an initial understanding of what lies behind the world of work, Lanny is also a faithful companion in "Lanny – Arbeitswelt gestern, heute, morgen." He teaches them what it means to be part of the working world, what a working day can look like and how it works. In addition, the folder looks at the history of industry: from craftsmanship to manufacture to factory.
"Industrie und Arbeitswelt 4.0" is another teaching material LANXESS developed, but this time unfortunately without Lanny, because this workbook is aimed at secondary school. It is intended to give middle school students a deeper understanding of the world of work and industry.
The teaching material (in German language) is even still available!
Access to clean water is a basic right. And we want to convey that to schoolchildren in the same way. That's why LANXESS held a project week on the subject of water at its sites in Cologne, Krefeld, Leverkusen and Bitterfeld in the summer of 2009. In addition to water experiments in the school laboratory, the water footprint and the global water situation were discussed. An expert from the organization AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation) from Tanzania was on site in Cologne. She reported on the local situation.
Previously, LANXESS worked with AMREF from mid-2008 to reduce the high disease and mortality rate in Tanzania caused by unclean and dirty water. Project implementation took place in several steps:
- 25 schools and their immediate surroundings were extensively and accurately analyzed in the fall of 2008.
- Then, depending on the location and their condition of the school building, sustainable sanitation technologies were determined that made sense from an environmental and financial point of view.
- In the following spring the planned measures were implemented and the sanitary facilities were improved. A rainwater treatment system for drinking water, cement washbasins and toilets were installed for each school.
At the respective catchment areas of the schools, one or two traditional water sources were improved and existing but non-functional ones were repaired.
LANXESS has been supporting the TuWaS initiative (Technology and Science in Schools) since 2015. There are now 8 elementary schools and 4 secondary schools in Cologne and Leverkusen participating.
TuWaS is an initiative of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the FU Berlin. In NRW, the IHKs organize the project. Thanks to the support, schools are able to borrow experiment kits for a school year. The rental fee is covered by sponsors such as LANXESS. LANXESS has taken over the experimentation sponsorship for the following schools:
- Katholische Grundschule am Gotenring, Cologne-Deutz
- Albert Schweitzer School, Cologne-Weiden
- Community Elementary School, Cologne-Flittard
- Ursula-Kuhr-Schule, secondary school, Cologne-Heimersdorf
- Carl-von-Ossietzky-School, comprehensive school, Cologne-Nippes
- GGS Bergisch-Neukirchen, Leverkusen
- KGS Langemaß, Cologne-Mülheim
- Grammar school Rodenkirchen, Cologne
- Maternus Elementary School, Cologne
- Grammar School Am Moltkeplatz Krefeld
- GGS Irisweg - GGS Dellbrücker main street
As a result of the major earthquake in the Tohoku region in 2011, LANXESS is working together with the organization Save the Children Japan. Because the region has still not been able to fully recover from the disaster, it is particularly important to us to support young people - which is why we organize scientific workshops in cooperation with Save the Children Japan, in which the children research, for example, how to drive wind turbines with PET bottles or how to make cold packs with super-absorbent polymers.
And since 2022, there have been so-called climate classes. In these, everything to do with the environment and climate change is taught and researched. In a size of 40 students from first grades to junior high school, the children were able to approach the topic theoretically in three seminars, first with lectures, quizzes and films. How to combat climate change was explained to the children by the seminar leaders, and afterwards they were even allowed to get hands-on. The production of cool packs with super-absorbent polymers illustrated how electricity consumption can be reduced in summer, because these cool packs can absorb up to 1,000 times more liquid than their own weight.
South Korea is also reaching out to the climate classes. In June 2023, LANXESS participated in the Climate and Environment Festival in Boramae Park in Seoul and was able to motivate more than 1,250 students from 26 schools to become involved in sustainability. As part of the festival, the young people were able to experience everything from projects to renewable energy to jogging in the park.
LANXESS supports secondary schools at its German sites in improving the teaching of chemistry or science. Since 2014, schools have been able to apply once a year with science project plans or requests for up-to-date equipment.
This year, the project funding led to 38 kilometers in the stratosphere, among other things. The physics working group of the Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium had a balloon launched into the stratosphere in March. They had spent months tinkering, developing electronics and finally filling their balloon with helium, which collected data from an altitude of 38 kilometers. This exciting project was supported by LANXESS and aims to promote young people's interest in science.
Since 2022, we have added a format to the education initiative - the Technology Days - to make apprenticeships in technology more attractive. Secondary modern school students in grades 8 to 10 can get excited about the subject of technology at the Sensenhammer Industrial Museum in Leverkusen by performing the following various experiments:
- Construction of a pulley,
- Demonstration of pressure and vacuum with a steel drum and various hose experiments,
- pendulum experiments,
- and the demonstration of the law of the lever.
