Emmerthal (RGo/WRS). In April 2017, a student laboratory based on the model of the Niedersächsische Lernwerkstatt für Solare Energiesysteme (NILS) will be opened at the International Solar Energy Research Center Konstanz e. V., or “ISC Konstanz” for short. NILS was founded at the Institute for Solar Energy Research in Hameln/Emmerthal (ISFH) 16 years ago and has become a popular destination for school classes who want to find out more about the use of solar energy.
The concept of the new student laboratory is largely based on the NILS-ISFH learning workshop concept. The first contacts between the learning workshop at ISFH and ISC Konstanz took place just over two years ago. Now the financing for the “Konstanzer Solare Lernwerkstatt” in Baden-Württemberg (KonSole) is secured and the realisation of the project is within reach.
After a three-month project set-up phase, the ISC’s many years of didactic experience will be regularly available to schools of general education in the future, in order to introduce pupils to working with renewable energies through research-based learning and at the same time to sensitize children and young people to energy poverty and global responsibility.
In the week before last, a preparatory conference was held at ISC, which dealt with a wide range of topics ranging from the technical, didactic and methodological organisation of the Solar Student Laboratory to the planning of events for school groups and the inclusion of ISC’s Africa and India projects in solar education work.
In Lower Saxony, the Ministry of Science and Culture (MWK) provides about 1,000 teaching hours for extra-curricular learning locations; this corresponds to about 35 teaching positions. In Baden-Württemberg, on the other hand, no teaching staff are assigned to extra-curricular learning locations on an hourly basis.