Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

For the 11th time in a row, the Chair of Power Electronics organized the event "Power Girls & Boys Days" to motivate students in 5th and 6th grade for technical issues. Almost 60 children had applied for the popular event this time, so that the 30 participants had to be drawn. On the 26th and 27th of July it was time for the children to visit the Technical Faculty of the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel shortly before the start of the summer vacation.

The first morning the junior scientists spent with a theory unit. It started with an introduction to current, voltage and power. The following explanation about circuits, diodes and LEDs led to a lot of coversations. Subsequently, the children discussed the different types of renewable energy and watched the award-winning film "Solar Energy Special" by Armin Maiwald from the show “Sendung mit der Maus”. This showed the great motivation as well as the interest of the children to understand the facts profoundly. The acquired knowledge was then practically applied to build a small circuit. The "TicTac flashlight" was assembled by each child itself. Previously, there was a introduction to the soldering, in which each child should solder his initials with resistors on a breadboard.

In the next project, it was already much more difficult: a board should be self-contained by the children completely equipped with components and represent a flashing heart in the end. The children had to learn the filigree handling of the soldering iron and also pay attention to the polarization of the components.

The acquired knowledge about the solar cell could be applied on the second day in practice: each child tinkeder a snall windmill, whose engine is driven by a photovoltaic cell.

Surprisingly, the Power Kids were so enthusiastic that the large majority did not make use of the opportunity to play during the break, and instead they continued to work. "Sometimes we had to ask the children several times clearly to take a break for drinking, so that at the high summer temperatures of 33°C degrees no one tips over," smiles organizer Max Lutz of the Chair of Power Electronics.

However, in order not to leave out the playful part completely, an electrical wire game was built in the last project, which the children were allowed to design and shape completely themselves.

All in all, we are pleased about the positive response of the children and their parents, who also reached us by e-mail after the event. Nobody wanted to go back to school after two days. A big thank you goes to the sponsors WEB-Andresen, SH Netz, Nord Electronic Drive Systems, FT Cap, Siemens and the “Förderverein of the TF”, who supported the campaign with financial or material donations. We would like to express this gratitude on behalf of the children and their parents.