Faced with the challenge of introducing the phenomena and processes of the glacier world to students in the glacier-remote region of Siegen, the project aims to ignite interest in ice and snow among pupils and primary education students at the University of Siegen. Alongside Martin Gröger and Volker Heck, Philipp Spitzer from Graz has joined the team, bringing an experiment for initial testing as part of a potential future project.
Despite severe weather in the Alps and southern Germany making travel from Graz difficult, this initiative underscores the significance and urgency of studying the Earth’s dwindling ice.
The hands-on experimentation takes place over five days in the student laboratories at the University of Siegen (zdi Student Lab Science Forum and the Physics/Geography Didactics Lab). The activity involves four groups, and although it occurs just before school holidays and the start of the exam period, visiting students find the experience enriching, leaving with a wealth of new insights.
On Monday, we began our GlacierXperience with a ninth-grade class from the Realschule in Eslohe. After the students familiarized themselves with the geographical features of the area, they focused on understanding the basic chemistry related to ice and snow.
