Since September 2020, staff and students at HTWK Leipzig have been working with pupils from Wilhelm-Ostwald-Gymnasium (WOG) to research the cultivation of crops under solar panels. They have now been able to present the project to the general public as part of the science festival.
A report by Alina Gohde (Master's student, Faculty ING HTWK Leipzig)
Preparations for the "Youth Maker & Game Convention" began shortly after 8 a.m. on Saturday in Halle in the Maker Space at Passage 13. Exciting research projects on the topics of technology, science and sustainability were presented at SILBERSALZ21, where events, exhibitions and workshops usually take place throughout the year.
The Faculty of Engineering at HTWK Leipzig also had a stand. The "Our Common Future Project - Agro-Photovoltaics" (Agro-PV) from the Chair of Industrial Measurement Technology was presented here. Although the photovoltaic module hardly generated any electricity due to the mixed weather and exhibition location inside the passage, the microcontrollers and sensors on offer invited young and old to tinker at the stand.
What the youngest visitors to the Maker Space were enthusiastic about is part of the Agro-PV school project: pupils from the Wilhelm-Ostwald-Gymnasium Leipzig are working on the sensor technology for the planters together with a team from the Chair of Industrial Measurement Technology. The recently completed test stand is located on the roof terrace of the Nieper Building at HTWK Leipzig.
The aim here is to monitor plant growth. The students and the HTWK team want to find out how different crops develop under PV modules and whether the plants themselves also influence the performance of the PV modules.
In addition to the research results of the Agro-PV project, the focus is on educational work and is supported by the Department of Sachunterricht at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. Together with the pupils of the Wilhelm-Ostwald-Gymnasium, great progress has already been made and initial successes have been celebrated. For example, 2nd place in the video challenge of the "Our Common Future" youth congress organised by the Robert Bosch Foundation. The reward was tickets for the SILBERSALZ Festival 2021 and an invitation to present the project in this context.
After an exciting weekend, we are now looking forward to further collaboration, creative ideas and lots of fun with scientific work.
SILBERSALZ Science & Media Festival
"HUMAN How does justice work?" was the focus of the 4th international science and media festival SILBERSALZ in Halle (Saale). From 15 to 19 September 2021, visitors had the opportunity to experience films, performances, readings, lectures, discussions and art installations free of charge and thus participate in current discourses on science, technology and society. SILBERSALZ 2021 used a variety of interactive formats to show the areas in which inequality is anchored worldwide.
The festival has been held in Halle an der Saale since 2018 with the aim of providing a broad public with access to scientific topics in an entertaining and informative way. It was launched four years ago on the initiative of the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Documentary Campus association and is funded by the state of Saxony-Anhalt, among others. The city of Halle (Saale) supports the festival both organisationally and financially.
