School projects
Workshop: “Diet: nutritional and environmental aspects” - Winter term 2025/2026
by Inka Galler, Nicole Matthaeus, Patrick Wolters, Emma Schulze
We prepared a 90-minutes workshop for a school lesson about a balanced diet and the impact of our diet on the environment. Two 10th-grade classes at the Rudolf-Wihr Realschule Plus in Limburgerhof attended the workshop in turn, with 15 to 20 pupils per class. Our workshop consisted of two parts, each starting with a 10-minute lecture about nutrients or the environmental impact of our diet followed by 35 minutes of group exercises. During these group exercises, pupils participated in four small-group sessions for seven minutes each, with 5-7 pupils per group. For each session, pupils had to solve a problem. Every 7 minutes, they changed sessions. To encourage pupils, we established a small competition, where groups were able to collect points corresponding to their performance during the group exercises, with a small price for the group that had won the most points in the end.
Part 1 – Nutrients and Diet
Session 1: Nutrient Memory
Pupils were presented with different cards in three categories. Category 1 was just the plain name of a nutrient; category 2 was a short description of the nutrient and category 3 was a picture of an ingredient/ food which was a good source of a specific nutrient. The task of the pupils was to match every nutrient with the right description and the right picture of the food which would be a good source of the nutrient in question. There were 15 cards in total, so 5 foods/nutrients were covered.
Session 2: “Sugar Guessing Game”
Pupils were shown pictures of different food items and asked to estimate how much sugar they contained per 100 grams or 100 millilitres. Afterwards, we discussed their guesses and explained why certain foods might contain more or less sugar than expected. This encouraged pupils to reflect on hidden sugars in common products.
Session 3: Protein Sorting Game
Pupils worked with real examples of foods such as apples, milk, lentils, tofu, eggs, oats, and nuts. Their task was to arrange the foods according to their protein content. They discussed their ideas with each other and physically placed the items in order before we revealed the correct ranking. This hands-on activity helped them better understand which everyday foods are good sources of protein.
Session 4: Right or Wrong?
Pupils were presented statements about nutrition. They had to discuss if they were right or wrong. After they took their guess, we discussed the answer. After they took their guess, we discussed the answer. It was important that they understand the meaning of each statement and why it was correct or incorrect.
Part 2 - Environmental Impact of Diet
Session 5: Land Usage
Pupils were presented with the 10 crops that require the most land to grow the amounts needed for the total German consumption of the corresponding crop. The amounts of crops used for animal feed were excluded. The task was to rank the 10 crops in order of land usage.
Session 6: Greenhouse Gases
Pupils were presented with a large, printed version of a bar chart representing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions of some selected foods. Using the information they had gathered from the diagram, pupils were then asked to answer questions from a PowerPoint presentation. Each question was answered directly and briefly explained. At this station, pupils were intended to both become aware of the impact of their diet on the climate and develop their skills in interpreting diagrams.
Station 7: Water Consumption in Food Production
Pupils were presented with a row of differently sized water containers, from several millilitres in a shot glass to 10-liter tanks. When multiplied by 10, these water volumes represented the freshwater consumption required to produce a specific quantity of a foodstuff. The task for pupils was to match these foodstuffs with the corresponding water volumes. A particular strength of this station lay in the physical objects, which were designed to vividly demonstrate to the pupils the amount of water used in food production.
Station 8: Right or Wrong?
Pupils were presented with statements about the effect of nutrition on the environment. They had to discuss if these were right or wrong. After they took their guess, we discussed the answer. It was important that they understand the meaning of each statement and why it was correct or incorrect.
Science school lesson - SoSe 25
by David Wößmann and Stefan Stojilkovic
This project was a workshop for 9th-grade pupils at a vocational school ("Realschule") about science and the process of research.
We introduced the pupils to scientific thinking with a lecture about the scientific method, and help them apply this knowledge in practice. Pupils participated in a hands-on session with five different experiments that involved crafting and testing hypotheses. We further aimed to inspire their creative thinking through a bridge-building activity. We also hoped to show them that science and experiments can be fun and inspiring.
Our project thus built links between university and the non-academic people, who make research possible.
Endometriosis lesson - WiSe 24/25
by Caroline Düx, Milan Schmidle & Fabian Sturm
A lesson for pupils of the age of 15-17 years about endometriosis to raise awareness on the topic. Endometriosis is a common disease that is often only recognized late or even not at all due to a lack of knowledge about its existence in the general public as well as even some physicians. Awareness is very important, because the earlier endometriosis is diagnosed the better it can be treated. Therefore, pupils should be informed so they can recognise endometriosis for themselves or their friends. With endometriosis the endometrium spreads outside of the uterus and causes strong menstrual pain.
