Success Factors for Extracurricular MINT Talent Support

Abstract

In the past decade a pronounced and growing lack of engineers, natural scientists, information technology experts, and mathematicians has been noted especially in Europe. Corresponding to the need to attract young people to science and technol-ogy, numerous extracurricular science labs (‘school labs’) have been established, especially in Germany. One of these initiatives is the DLR_School_Lab Oberpfaffen-hofen, operated by Germany's national research center for aeronautics and space, DLR, and a typical example of such a school lab. It offers hands-on experiments for regular secondary school classes, advanced teacher trainings and, as its specialty, enrichment courses for gifted students. In this paper the concept of the DLR_School_Lab is presented. The lab’s suitability to offer enrichment projects for talented secondary school students is described, as well as its teacher education concept.