1st Advent | CO2 traffic lights for schools - career and study orientation

From science to school – zdi makes it possible. Career and study orientation courses are currently running at several locations in NRW, which could not be more up-to-date. There, the young people learn how to build CO2 traffic lights for the class - and at the same time learn a great deal about the background to professions and courses of study in electrical engineering and information technology, but also in environmental and automation technology.

The current courses on the subject of "CO2 traffic lights for classrooms" show how quickly the zdi community reacts to current events with its extracurricular offers. The Trier University of Applied Sciences has published a "CO2 traffic light" developed. zdi networks quickly dealt with these building instructions and, thanks to the zdi-BSO-MINT funding program, were able to offer corresponding courses. 

The in-depth career and study orientation in the STEM field has been an integral part of zdi networks and zdi student laboratories for years. This year, for example, a group was honored from which the 400.000th participant in the zdi-BSO-MINT program came. Thanks to the good structures in NRW, it is possible to implement extracurricular projects quickly and easily. In the case of the CO2 traffic lights, everyone benefits: the young people learn something about STEM professions and courses, companies can position themselves as potential employers - and the schools benefit from the built measuring devices in the pandemic.

Three offers are presented here as examples.

LNU-Frechen builds traffic lights in the autumn holidays

During the autumn holidays, a group of high school students planned and implemented a project to build CO2 traffic lights. On the initiative of two students, the computer science teacher and the zdi center LNU Frechen supported the project. The task now is to calibrate the sensors even better. Click here for the zdi center.

In Lippe, the young people develop their own

The subject of the course in the zdi center Lippe.MINT is not only the replication, but the "self-development" of the sensor technology. To enable the participants to select, adjust and calibrate sensors, an automation engineer and a computer scientist lead the current hybrid course (online & on-site). The aim is to connect the measuring devices via the Internet so that, for example, the caretaker of a school has an overview of all the rooms - and can specifically request that they be ventilated. Click here for the zdi center.

Components are manufactured in the Makerspace in Krefeld

The Makerspace of the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences and the zdi center KreMINTec have also jointly developed a twelve-hour course for young people. The course combines manual skills in dealing with environmental sensors and electronic components with the basics of programming. The students get a kit, e.g. B. also in the Makerspace lasered wooden parts, electronic components and cables etc. Each component is picked up, examined and the functionality explained. Then the components are connected to each other. In the second step, the components are put into operation piece by piece - until the finished CO2 traffic light is put into operation. In the opinion of the organizing team, more technical areas cannot be covered in a 12-hour course. Here's the Makerspace.

15 years zdi | Everything about zdi-BSO-MINT – Career and study orientation at zdi.NRW

Reached more than 400.000 young people

zdi.NRW has celebrated a special anniversary: ​​At the zdi network in Gelsenkirchen, two schoolchildren were honored as the 400.000th participant in the zdi-BSO-MINT program for their project course. A reason for us to tell you a little more about the program for in-depth career and study orientation. To the post.

The funding program zdi-BSO-MINT

What is behind the funding program? Why is it worth thinking outside the box when designing the course? And how fast can the funding flow? Heinz Stöckemann from the zdi regional office delivers the answers in the interview.

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