Through various courses, students can learn how to use manufacturing technologies and try them out in a school setting. Computer science lessons, in particular, offer excellent opportunities for project-based learning, in which pupils can be creative.

Soft Skills and Technical Competence

In the ‘Soft Skills and Technical Competence’ module, students are introduced to 3D printing, laser cutting and hardware-oriented programming, amongst other things. Over the course of the winter semester, they carry out a guided project. In the summer semester, students apply the skills they have previously acquired in a free-form group project set within the context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Over numerous rounds, a wide variety of projects have been developed – ranging from smart irrigation systems and intelligent window controls for ventilation to programmable USB-C charging stations.

Further information, projects and images

Lab2Learn – Thinking about Computing Science from a didactic perspective

In the Lab2Learn seminar, students explore the topic of digital fabrication in a school context. To this end, they first familiarise themselves with the Making and Learning Lab and then develop appropriate teaching units, which are subsequently implemented with a school class. During the winter semester 25/26, this resulted in two lessons for a Year 5 class. In the first lesson, the pupils learnt everything they needed to know about 3D printing and then used CookieCaster to design a biscuit cutter. The second lesson focused entirely on the laser cutter, and the whole class was able to create their own personalised name badges.