At the 52nd edition of "Jugend forscht", young people proved that research knows no age. In six predominantly scientific disciplines, 50 young people took part in the regional competition and showed what they had discovered and developed in recent months. The venue was the Gründer- und Technologiezentrum in Solingen for the 20th time. The young researchers came from the Bergisches Städtedreieck, Leverkusen, Wipperfürth, Bergisch Gladbach and Rösrath on Saturday.
A chewing gum that brushes your teeth? Sounds absurd, but it's not. Although Chiara Zimmermann (17) and her team from Rösrath are still struggling with taste problems - their toothbrush chewing gum already has the right consistency. "We have removed the harmful ingredients of a chewing gum and replaced them with those of a toothpaste," Chiara explained.
Things got animalistic at the booth next door: Annika Bäuerle (17) and Paula Jung (17) found out that flute and violin music awakens primal instincts in man's best friend that encourage dogs to bark. Piano music, on the other hand, had a calming effect on pets.
Warming ski clothing could soon be available for purchase under the name "Thermo-Hydro-Suit" - the development by Hannes Widera (17), Anne Jakubek (18) and Philipp zur Löwen (18) certainly has patent potential, according to the jury. The students from the Friedrich-Albert-Lange School were the only participants from Solingen. The question they asked themselves was, "How can you use all the energy in your body?" Using a thermal imaging camera, it became clear that the most heat is produced and stored at the back, while the fingers remain cold. "So we thought up a heat exchanger linked to a pump," explained Hannes Widera. Water heated by the back is pumped to the fingers through a hose auger. The thermal imaging camera proves that this works. With their project, they finally landed in third place in the technology category.
Permanent winner again amazes jury and audience
Tobias Gerbracht, who won the national prize in the working environment category in 2016, once again amazed the jury and visitors. He had been working on his project for two and a half years, developing an innovative measuring device for the area-wide detection of exhaust gas molecules. "I want to provide facts instead of speculation," the 19-year-old explained. His device, whose 185 individual parts he independently designed on the computer, perfected and finally implemented in practice, achieves a light path of 1.4 kilometers.
Students under the age of 14 took part in the "Jugend experimentiert" competition, which was judged independently of the "Jugend forscht" projects. Among them were Katja Buchavzor (11) and Diana Ferreira (12). The girls from Rösrath took a close look at climate change. The team led by Anton Pembaur (18) from the Leibniz Gymnasium in Remscheid took part for the second time. In their research, they were on the trail of the epigenome and have been studying stick insects for four years. Although the small insects reproduce A-sexually and have the same DNA, they can be brown or green in color. The three young researchers found out, among other things, that it has to do with food. Dry leaves cause stick insects to turn brown.
QUALIFIED FOR April 3-5) HAVE Tobias Gerbracht (19); municipal Carl-Fuhlrott-Gymnasium Wuppertal, "Development of an innovative measuring device for the area-wide detection of exhaust gas molecules. Anton Pembaur (18), Gianluca di Bari (17), Finja Henke (18), municipal Leibniz-Gymnasium Remscheid, "Ramulus artemis - Tracking down the epigenome". Stefan Kemmerich (14), Erzbischöfliches ST.-Angela-Gymnasium Wipperfürth "Ecological investigation of limnoterrestrial tardigrades".
Solinger Tageblatt, March 6, 2017
