“Dad, may I disassemble your razor?” No! “But open your laptop and see what it looks like in there?” Hands off!
Children are curious. They want to know how the technology behind things works. Screw it around, build something yourself. But if dad doesn’t give up his razor, there has to be something else to keep the desire for technology alive. Or to rediscover them.
Get excited about technology. That is the motto of the Karlsruhe technology initiative technika. Because there are also children who do not even dare to approach technology, find it totally boring or have no access to it. In view of the shortage of skilled workers, one thing is certain: kids who are given early support in IT and technology are in great demand later in their professional lives.
Ariane Lindemann talks to Dirk Fox, the founder of technika, about how to get children excited about technology and how even non-technical people can become tinkerers.
The technika is well-known for making enthusiastic inventors out of those who don’t like technology. How do topics have to be prepared so that children get excited about them?
The most important thing is the playful approach. An intrinsic approach to learning is always the best motivation. If children can choose for themselves what they want to do and if they can solve tasks or problems they have set themselves, it is fun for them to learn something.
In contrast to schools, where open-ended tasks tend to be the exception?
Yes, unfortunately. At school, children are conditioned so that there is only one correct solution to each task. But later in life there are rarely wrong solutions, only better and worse ones. No engineer is given a task for which he or she already knows the solution. Children usually learn to find solutions to problems they don’t have.
This is certainly unavoidable in certain subjects…
Absolutely. Nothing against a good general education. But in the long run it is of course a frustrating experience when everything you learn has no application in your own life. When children are given tasks they have set themselves, they try to solve them. When they realize they are stuck, they look for improvements. And that is exactly the key: getting the children into a flow so that they experience enthusiasm and their own self-efficacy and develop their problem-solving and tinkering with it until it gets better and better.
At what point can children be exposed to technology at all?
It certainly makes sense to start with a technology offer in the second grade of elementary school. In the first grade, the children first have to settle into their new environment. In many of our technical groups, we start with small programming as early as the third grade.
That’s very early …
Yes, but it is often the case that when a few children get enthusiastic about programming, group dynamic processes take hold, which means that others jump on the bandwagon and experiment as well. We have had very good experiences here.
Is IT and technology neglected in schools?
Definitive. The schools even train less than in the 1970s and 1980s. At that time there were still handicraft lessons in elementary schools. Boys – and girls too – were given a completely natural approach to technology. Since interest in technology tends to decrease in the private sphere because we tend to throw it away instead of repairing it, access to technology has also decreased in families. Unfortunately, the schools do not compensate for this.
In addition, the elementary schools have almost exclusively female teachers.
Since there are no offers, there is of course no need for a primary school teacher to undergo training or further training here. Which means, however, that role models for girls and boys are mostly missing here.
Secondary schools also started far too late…
In the secondary schools in Baden-Württemberg, there is the subject NWT (computer science, natural sciences, technology) from the eighth grade. The children are already 13 years old. This is of course a joke. In the age of digitization, it’s like introducing music and sports in the eighth grade. The fact that we allow ourselves this in technology is incomprehensible given the constantly growing economic and social importance of technology and IT and is a great disadvantage for our children – and for the whole of Germany.
In 2015 you have the technika | Karlsruhe technology initiative founded, which supports schools in setting up technology and robotics working groups. Out of what impulse?
I found the fact very sobering that the importance of technology and IT is completely underestimated in society. I’ve noticed that with my three sons. Schools have almost nothing to offer in this regard.
Today, eight years later, is the situation similarly grim?
Unfortunately yes. I think it has gotten even worse. In almost all areas there is talk of a shortage of skilled workers. But I wonder which skilled workers are actually financing our prosperity? We earn 57 percent of the gross domestic product in Germany by exporting goods – mainly from the automotive industry and mechanical engineering. This whole country lives on it. More than 33 percent of all jobs are now STEM jobs. This means that every third school leaver will later work in a STEM job. And MINT consists of around 95 percent technology and computer science. The school does not prepare for what a large part of the children live on later. That is absurd.
But there are also bright spots. This gap is closed with the fischertechnik AGs of the Karlsruher Technik-Initiative…
In the fischertechnik working groups, we support schools in setting up technology and robotics working groups. We have now equipped more than 130 schools in the region with fischertechnik construction kits and are thus promoting the technical and IT skills of schoolchildren in a playful way. The range of courses begins in the third grade of elementary school and builds on one another systematically and sustainably.
In the MINT professions, the proportion of women is 13.8%. Still a sad picture. What about the quota of girls in the AGs?
In elementary schools we get extremely good access to girls. At this age, gender doesn’t play a big role, girls get involved with such topics without reservation. Some school administrations support the AGs with a quota system. As a result, the participation rate of girls in the fischertechnik and Technik AGs in secondary schools has also increased significantly.
Does interest decrease during puberty?
Absolutely. This is even more pronounced among girls due to herd effects. If one or more of the girls in the group are tired, the others follow suit. We tried to do something about that with our girls’ clubs, which we now offer at some schools. So that the girls – without boys – can be among themselves, which at this age often results in a more uninhibited use of technology.
The technikaLabs of the techniKAmpus initiative are a further development of the previous offer. They offer extracurricular MINT offers in youth centers and during vacation offers of the city youth committee. What was the intention here?
A big advantage of the AGs in the schools is the low barrier to entry. The children are at school anyway, maybe have lessons in the afternoon and then stay there and go to a club. What initially proves to be an advantage can, however, be a disadvantage during puberty. Then such an AG can suddenly become uninteresting. We try to counteract this dynamic a bit by also offering extracurricular activities in the youth clubs. The youth clubs are not school-related, but put together locally, and especially in the secondary schools we often have the situation that other groups of friends suddenly form because not all the children live near the school anymore.
What can the kids expect in the technikaLabs?
Here we offer the same offers as in the fischertechnik AGs. In the technikaLabs, however, we have a professional partner through the city youth committee as the leading provider of holiday programs for children in Karlsruhe, which offers perfect organization and takes over the social support of the children.
In addition, the partnership with the Institute for Product Development (IPEK) at KIT enables us to promote young technology talents in an even more targeted manner. This means that we can offer in-depth knowledge and professional care to children who want to go a step beyond learning through play and want to take part in competitions.
What exactly does this talent promotion look like?
On the one hand, we are expanding the equipment with fischertechnik to include 3D printing, laser cutting and sensors. This means that the children can make 3D designs, cut them and use them to build semi-professional prototypes. Above all, we want to support groups that, for example, experiment across schools or do youth research or take part in robotics competitions worldwide.
Who guides the children in the youth centers?
It varies a lot and depends on who we can win in the region. To a large extent, this is done by the employees of the city youth committee. There are quite a few who are technically affine. In the holiday offers we ourselves have numerous volunteer partners. For example, employees with an affinity for technology from Karlsruhe companies, trainees who turn it into a trainee project, or students.
Dirk Fox
born in Koblenz in 1965, studied computer science at KIT and has been a member of the CyberForum board since 2008. He is the author and publisher of several specialist journals (including ftpedia). He has been dealing with data protection and IT security for over 30 years. His company secorvo security consulting GmbH is one of the leading consulting firms for IT security and data protection in Germany. Dirk Fox was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for his services.
About the techniKAmpus project
In the techniKAmpus project, technika | Karlsruhe Technology Initiative Sustainable extracurricular MINT offers for children and young people at locations of open children and youth work and during vacation offers of the City Youth Committee eV Project partners are the CyberForum eV, the City Youth Committee eV (stja) and the Institute for Product Development (IPEK) of the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT). The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the project as part of the “Regional Cluster for STEM Education for Young People” guideline.
About technika | Karlsruhe technology initiative
The technics | Karlsruher Technik-Initiative is a project initiated by the CyberForum that gets young people (3rd – 12th grade) enthusiastic about technology. As Germany’s largest regional MINT initiative, technika reaches more than 2,000 children and young people in over 130 schools and institutions every week. technika supports the establishment of robotics and technology working groups, arranges sponsors, organizes events and coordinates STEM holiday programs. With company visits, holiday offers, robotics competitions and multiplier training courses as well as specific offers for girls, technika is continuously expanding the range of offers. The CyberForum works together with the universities in the region and is supported ideally and financially by numerous foundations and initiatives, such as karlsruhe.digital.
More information on the Karlsruhe Technology Initiative: