A secondary school for science city

Summer schools, student labs, Research Days – universities, companies and research institutes come up with manys things to get young people into science. But, there was one thing missing: the science park’s own school. This could change in near future. “Our connection to Adlershof is as old as the school itself,” says Bärbel Cohaus, principal of the Heinrich-Hertz-Gymnasium in Berlin-Friedrichshain. Originally located in Adlershof, the school could soon return there. “We have the idea,” Cohaus says, “now it has to be filled with life.”

The secondary school is celebrating its 50th birthday this year. Its ties to Adlershof are as old and vivid as the school itself. The school received it’s name, of the legendary German physicist Heinrich Hertz, in the Bunsen Hall of the GDR Academy of the Sciences in Adlershof. Today, students from the H2O, see the logo of the school, regulary come to Adlershof for internships, experiments or lectures. Soon, this could be their actual way to school. The Heinrich-Hertz-Gymnasium with its 560 students is a special secondary school with a strong focus on mathematics and sciences. “There is hardly any room left, particulary in the science classes,” says Bärbel Cohaus.

“60 to 70 per cent of our graduates will choose a career in the so-called MINT-professions later”, she says and adds: “This is a result of our efforts to interest children in mathematics, chemistry and physics.” The school has been working together with the Adlershof technology park and its institutes, such as the Leibniz Institute for Crystal Growth (Institut für Kristallzüchtung, IKZ) and the department of mathematics of Humboldt-Universität of Berlin (HU), since 1991. Those, who successfully complete certain advanced courses at H2O can skip introductory courses, when studying mathematics at HU. Just in 2011, the school has planned more than 40 excursions to Adlershof, among them visits to the BESSY betatron or the German Aerospace Centre (Deutsche Luft- und Raumfahrtgesellschaft, DLR). In April, the school was visited by the Humboldt-Bayer mobile – a 14-m-long truck turned into a mobile science laboratory. And just recently, the 11th Summer School for Mathematics took place. The lectures are held by scientists from the Humboldt University and touch upon matters “exceeding the limits of the standard curriculum”. And the teachers of the secondary school go to HU for training and further education.

The highlight this year is going to be the celebration of the 50th anniversary, which will take place at Adlershof. During Research Days, there will be a whole day with experiments dedicated to the school in September. And a day later, during the anniversary celebrations, there will be many oppurtunities to think and talk about how to fill the idea “secondary school in Adlershof” with life.

by Rico Bigelmann

Link: www.hhgym.de