How does a gift cross a river without a boat or bridge? With this question, two FWJ students from the Department of Physics Education got around 150 physics-loving children and young people to puzzle it out.
62 teams from the region registered for the "Katja's Big Throw" competition organised by the Institute of Physics at the University of Oldenburg - today the three winning teams from Oldenburg and the surrounding area will receive their certificates and prize money. Anna Maroti and Katja Seidel, who are both completing their Voluntary Scientific Year at the university, developed and organised the competition under the direction of Oldenburg physics didactics expert Prof. Dr Michael Komorek.
The participants, aged between 10 and 14, had to help Katja deliver her birthday present for Anna to the other side of the River Hunte and fulfil a number of conditions in the process. They transported themselves back to a time when Oldenburg was surrounded by marshes and moorland and there were no bridges over the Hunte. The aim was to construct a paper tower weighing a maximum of 100 grams with a throwing device and to throw the 30 gram gift from there to the other bank. In the end, 37 teams put this into practice and presented their paper constructions and throwing device on the university premises - under pandemic conditions and spread over a two-week period.
"Very creative and well thought-out constructions were used, and the groups demonstrated great skill and good problem-solving ability," said Komorek, praising the students. Arwen and Runa Stührmann managed the most precise throw with the maximum tower height and their construction was rewarded with first place and a cash prize of 200 euros. The two pupils from Neues Gymnasium Oldenburg would like to donate the money to charity. Marlene Schneider and Jonas Goldmann from Graf-Anton-Günther-Schule took second place (150 euros) ahead of their two third-placed classmates Carl-Theodor Buschmann and Jaron Lebherz (100 euros prize money).
"Katja's Big Throw" is a joint project of the Institute of Physics and the AHOI_MINT project, which - financed by funds from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research - promotes regional education in the so-called MINT subjects (Mathematics, Computing Science, Natural Sciences and Technology).