Schüler-Ingenieur-Akademie

Goals

• Promotion of scientifically interested and talented high school students
• To convey the contents of the professional field of an engineer
• Gaining experience of topics and working methods in the natural science field outside the school day
• Contact with university lecturers and company managers

Process

• The SIA lasts one school year (two semesters) and takes place every Friday afternoon (not during vacations).
• Venues are the school, the college and the companies.
• Participate in the Karlsruhe SIAs can students of the 11th   Classes of the participating schools.
• For admission to the academy, good academic performance is a prerequisite. Special technical knowledge is not required.
• Supervised are the project work mainly by university professors and company specialists.
• Teachers from the high schools accompany the young people throughout the training period and take over individual teaching units. They supervise and advise the SIA participants and assess their learning progress.
• The students independently prepare a seminar paper on a freely chosen topic from technology and science in the last third of the course duration.

Contents

The contents are structured as modules, for each of which one of the organizers is responsible. No contents of the educational plan for general education high schools are taught.

In short theoretical lectures and especially in practical exercises interdisciplinary topics are dealt with from the areas

• mechanical engineering,
• mechatronics,
• Electronics,
• Sensor technology,
• Information technology,
• Business administration,

In seminars key skills are trained such as

• Teambuilding,
• Application training,
• presentation technique,
• professional documenting or
• project management.

Company tours, plant tours, trade fair visits or outdoor seminars can be further offerings.