Make Your School! - Your Ideas Workshop

Students will tackle the challenges of digitalization at their school

Ongoing project - open for funding

The project is open to funding. Help us spark an interest in STEM subjects among schoolchildren early on through targeted support, and create space for creative development at the beginning of their careers.

This is what it's all about

How can students learn to navigate the challenges of digitalization? In the “Make Your School — Your Ideas Workshop” project, students have the opportunity to address challenges at their own school using digital and technical tools. During hack days, students can actively help shape their school. In self-selected projects, they program, tinker, and craft to find and implement solutions to problems at their school. KIT students from various STEM subjects act as mentors and role models, accompanying the students throughout the process.

Who is participating?

So far, the project has been implemented at four schools in Karlsruhe. These schools organize their own hack days but receive technical and organizational support from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). KIT Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (ETIT) and KIT Center for Media Learning (ZML) form the hub at KIT. They are currently responsible for organizing two to three day-long hack days at each of the four schools per school year.

What we want to achieve

"Make Your School!" is much more than just a technology workshop. Hack days improve digital education in schools and introduce young people to a variety of digital and electronic tools. The project provides teams with creative spaces to develop their own solutions. Students experience firsthand how exciting and forward-looking STEM subjects can be, as well as how they can create tangible things with their own hands. Ideally, these initial, playful experiences will strengthen their long-term interest in STEM subjects and lay the foundation for a future career in STEM.

The project's objectives

- Contribute to improving digital education in schools and familiarizing young people with digital and electronic tools

- Promote students' ability to identify problems and opportunities for improvement

- Promote teamwork skills

- Promote the development of independent, creative solutions

- Promote self-confidence and trust in young people's abilities

- Provide initial, playful insights into STEM subjects and ideally promote a lasting interest in them

Further information about the project

As part of "Make Your School!," students independently decide on the creative process. Together, they develop and build their own projects with Arduino, a versatile platform that allows them to bring their ideas to life with minimal effort and a variety of materials. The highlight is that the students are tasked with improving their own school. They have unlimited creative freedom and decide what to plan and which problems are important to them. The project's greatest strength lies in the mentors' role. They are KIT students from various disciplines, including physics, mathematics, electrical engineering, and medical technology. As representatives of their respective fields, the mentors also serve as role models for the young participants.

Facts and figures

Project duration:
Ongoing since 2022

Funding required:
€32,000 for two additional events in the Karlsruhe metropolitan area over a two-year period

Existing funding partnerships:
"Wissenschaft im Dialog" (Science in Dialogue), the Klaus Tschira Foundation (national sponsor), and the Vector Foundation (regional sponsor for Baden-Württemberg)

Project responsibility KIT:
Center for Media Learning (ZML) at KIT
Contact: Daniel Weichsel, Managing Director