How to encourage their joy of discovery and childlike curiosity? These questions were asked in a pilot project by the Landschaftsverband Westfalen Lippe (LWL) in cooperation with the Initiative Zukunft durch Innovation (ZdI) and the town of Oelde.
The Machinery Division also played a key role in this project – as one component of the concept involved a visit to a company in Oelde to find out what role science and technology play in everyday working life. Almost 100 children and their teachers from various institutions took part in the first “Discovery Days” at the Machinery Division over a total of six dates in 2010. The children were allowed to fill bags with sand and weigh it themselves. They were amazed when they saw how quickly a packing machine can do this. At the Training Centre, each child built a functioning wind turbine, made hearts out of wire conductors and learned the basic principle of the “hot wire” circuit.
The Discovery Days were a complete success and have been held regularly ever since – only with the interruption of Corona. They enrich not only the children – but also the trainees and everyone else involved in the project, including in other Oelde companies. In the meantime, some of the first “explorer kids” are now in training at the companies they visited as Steppkes.