Mobile learning center for Upper Lusatia launches
As a highlight of this year's matriculation celebration, the mobile learning location was officially opened on the Zittau campus on October 2, 2024 as a field of action of the "Future Learning Location Upper Lusatia (ZukLOS)" initiative.
This is an Airstream trailer with a university layout, inside which various experimental and hands-on stations can be installed. Equipped in this way, the trailer with matching towing vehicle will be on the road as a rolling laboratory in Upper Lusatia in future, offering children and young people in particular access to modern technology and STEM education outside the classroom.
The Rector, Professor Alexander Kratzsch, and the Vice-Rector for Education and International Affairs, Professor Sophia Keil, together with Franziska Schubert (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), Member of the State Parliament, and Professor Welf-Guntram Drossel, Chairman of the University Council of the HSZG, performed the symbolic ribbon-cutting ceremony with golden scissors. In their welcoming speeches, they acknowledged the importance of the mobile learning location for extracurricular STEM education in the region and for the university.
After the official inauguration, many of the guests present took the opportunity to explore the new learning space and try out the experiment stations for themselves. They were impressed by the modern learning environment and the technical possibilities in the extended Airstream trailer and found out about the wide range of functions and possible applications.
The Airstream trailer was selected in a participatory process in which pupils from the "Geistesblitz" makerspace in Löbau also played an active role. As an ambassador for the HSZG, the mobile laboratory is supervised by university staff together with students and federal volunteers who are completing a social year in science, technology and sustainability at the HSZG. This ongoing collaboration with young people shows how much the initiative is designed to involve the main target group in the design of modern learning environments.
The mobile learning location will be gradually introduced in the winter semester 2024/2025 and will make regular stops at schools and extracurricular learning locations in future.
The laboratory on wheels was used for the first time from October 14 to 18, 2024 for the fourth energy camp at the Knappenrode energy factory on the subject of robotics, programming and ESD with pupils from Oberlandgymnasium Seifhennersdorf.
The Airstream trailer will make a stop at the Zittau campus on December 4, 2024.
Further assignments are currently being prepared with grammar schools and secondary schools in Upper Lusatia to carry out hackdays lasting several days, where the focus will be on tinkering with prototypes to improve everyday school life. The HSZG is a partner in supra-regional networks such as Make Your School and MINOS.
The Sächsische Zeitung reported on the introduction of the Airstream trailer in October.
On Wednesday, November 6, 2024, 9.30-11.00 a.m., the mobile learning location made a guest appearance on the Görlitz campus of the HSZG. The Rector cordially invited all university members to visit the rolling laboratory in Görlitz, try out modern technologies and talk to those responsible.
The Vice-Rector for Education and International Affairs, Professor Sophia Keil, would like to thank the entire ZukLOS project team, the participating colleagues from the faculties and all the university administration staff involved, without whose commitment the realization of the mobile learning location would not have been possible.
The aim of the strategic initiative "Future Learning Location Upper Lusatia" (ZukLOS) is to create diverse and innovative teaching and learning spaces in the extracurricular STEM sector. Future-oriented offerings focused on regional development are to be established at these locations. The focus here is on four fields of action:
* Mobile learning locations * Junior Academy Zittau
* Experimental House Görlitz *Campus4You
With the action-oriented and cross-generational offers, especially for children and young people in Upper Lusatia, the university wants to significantly increase the attractiveness of the region for families and young people.
