On 17.03.2023, the "Mint Lounge for Young Teachers" of the Association for the Promotion of MINT Education (MNU) took place at Leibniz-School Hannover. The event was organised and coordinated by Dr Julian Heeg (former IDN) and Melanie Monke (IDN), among others. It was aimed specifically at young teachers and offered them the opportunity to learn about current developments in the STEM field and to exchange ideas with experienced colleagues. After the keynote speech on the topic of Fake News by Prof. Dr. Anke Meisert, participants were able to take advantage of a wide range of workshops. Two of the workshops were offered by IDN staff.
On the one hand, Dr. Stefanie Lenzer, Catharina Pfeiffer, Nina Wegner as well as Prof. Dr. Andreas Nehring presented current material on the topic of "Social media and climate education in chemistry lessons". The workshop was based on an article previously published in the journal "Naturwissenschaften im Unterricht Chemie": https://www.friedrich-verlag.de/chemie/gesellschaft-nachhaltigkeit/so-eine-grosse-wirkung-hat-so-wenig-kohlenstoffdioxid-13192
Another workshop was offered by Dr Alexander Büssing, who reported on the use of immersive virtual reality in biology lessons on the topic "Immersive virtual reality in biology lessons: use scenarios of 360° videos to promote assessment competence". Contents of this workshop were previously published in the association's journal MNU and can also be found on the internet: https://bit.ly/3TqovGN.
In addition to the two workshops, some former staff members of the Institute were also represented with contributions. Dennis Zehler and Dr Sarah Hundertmark presented innovative teaching ideas for chemistry and mathematics lessons, respectively.
The "Mint Lounge for Young Teachers" was a great success and offered a valuable opportunity for the exchange of actors from theory and practice about current developments in teaching and learning in the STEM field. We would like to thank the Association for the Promotion of STEM Education (MNU) for organising this event and look forward to further joint activities.
