Over the past few months, schoolchildren were able to embark on a journey into the research world of mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology. As extracurricular places of learning, the universities of Salzburg, Linz and Passau as well as Salzburg Research offered experiments and workshops that complement lessons, promote talents and provide insights into the everyday work of researchers. Numerous materials and videos are available online.

In the cross-border INTERREG project “Establishing a network of STEM Learning Centres”, STEM offers for secondary school pupils were created. Local STEM Learning Centres were established and expanded and extracurricular STEM learning resources were developed. The results are now available online.

“STEM promotion aims to invite children and young people on a journey into research and get them sustainably excited about science and technology,” says Arne Bathke, Dean of the Faculty of Digital and Analytical Sciences at the University of Salzburg.

“Through exciting mediation formats, participants learn about the diverse educational opportunities and discover new career fields – an important investment in the future!” says Siegfried Reich, Managing Director of Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft.

Researchers as Role Models

What is research? How does one actually become a researcher? In numerous videos, female and male scientists provide insights into their educational biographies and everyday life in research with all its challenges and experiences of success. Especially for the target group of girls, numerous women in companies of different technical branches also show their scope of duties and their career in a scientific career.
mintlabs.at/videos

MINT material collection

The universities of Salzburg, Linz and Passau as well as the non-university research institute Salzburg Research provide a rich collection of freely accessible STEM materials online. Instructions, videos, applets, workshop templates and much more are available in various subject areas for a wide range of school levels.
mintlabs.at/materialsammlung

Extensive offer in the last school week

In the last week of school, the participating institutions offer a large virtual and on-site programme for school classes.
mintlabs.at/termine

About MINT Learning Center

In the EU-funded INTERREG project “Establishing a network of STEM Learning Centres” (project AB307), STEM offers for secondary school students were created in a cross-border cooperation from January 2020 to June 2022. Local STEM Learning Centres were established and expanded and extracurricular STEM learning resources were developed and evaluated. Through targeted focus and individual interest promotion, existing initiatives were to be complemented and the motivation and competences of learners in the STEM field were to be increased.
Project partners: Johannes Kepler University Linz (project management), University of Salzburg, University of Passau and Salzburg Research. MINT Learning Center was supported by funds from the INTERREG Bavaria-Austria 2014-2020 funding programme with co-financing from the province of Salzburg.

Award-winning MINT:labs Science City Itzling

One of the local initiatives further developed in the INTERREG project is the Salzburg “MINT:labs Science City Itzling”. Here, Salzburg Research is working together with the University of Salzburg to develop new STEM education formats. School classes and individual pupils between the 7th and 10th grades were able to immerse themselves in the world of science and technology in direct contact with researchers. With a pilot project funded by the City of Salzburg, the successive expansion of the offer at the site has already begun in 2019. Thanks to the EU-funded INTERREG project, the regular workshops on the so-called “MINTwoch” (one Wednesday per month) were expanded. Due to the Corona-related change from face-to-face meetings to online meetings, the universities of Linz and Passau were also able to become more involved in the content of the Salzburg offer. The project “MINT:labs Science City Itzling” was awarded the Culture Fund Prize by the City of Salzburg in 2020. The prize recognises the work of the interdisciplinary team around the two initiators Arne Bathke (Paris Lodron University Salzburg) and Siegfried Reich (Salzburg Research) as well as the coordinators Julia Eder (Salzburg Research) and Marlene Ernst (PLUS).
www.mintlabs.at