“Jugend forscht“ Competition and Projects
"Jugend forscht" is Germany's best-known competition for young researchers. Its goal is to get children and young people excited about STEM (mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology) and to find and promote young talent. The participants work on projects on questions of their own choice from the STEM field. Afterwards, they write a paper and present the results to the competition jury.
Nationwide, more than 120 competitions are held each round at regional, state and national level. The winners of the regional competitions take part in the state competition. The state winners of Jugend forscht then compete in the national finals.
Our first group of students worked on a Chemistry project on Bisphenol A migration from plastic packaging. They won the regional competition in Frankfurt and took part in the Hessen state competition in Darmstadt.
After a break during the pandemic, two of our grade 12 students, Ria Arora and David Jukic, presented their Physics project in 2023. They developed a self-made interferometer for high precision measurements, won the regional competition organised by Heraeus in Hanau and took part in the Hessen state competition in Darmstadt, organised by Merck.
Other groups are currently working on their own scientific projects and will take part in this competition in the future. More information on our past Jugend forscht projects can be found below.
Landeswettbewerb 2023 - Self-developed interferometer
Project description:
The project aims to find out if it is possible to detect viral aerosols (e.g. COVID-19 aerosols etc.) in a room with a homemade interferometer. With the help of a developed computational simulation, it should be determined how accurate enough an interferometer should be to realise the set goal. A calibration of the interferometer should determine the existing interferometric sensitivity. This is made possible by experimentally determining the change in refractive indices of liquids, for example distilled water, through visible changes in the interference pattern. Based on this knowledge, it will be possible to answer the research question of the project.
Landeswettbewerb 2019 - Bisphenol A – Migration from food packaging
Project description:
Bisphenol A (BPA) is a synthetic compound used to make several types of plastic. types of plastic. It is found in polycarbonate, food cans and thermal receipt labels.
This molecule has often been found in urine samples from humans. It is suspected that BPA is one of the reasons that male and female fertility has declined in recent years. It is considered an endocrine disruptor and has a similar structure to oestrogen.
The aim of the project is to detect the migration of BPA from food packaging. from food packaging. To do this, we filled the plastic items and cans with different liquids to represent different foods. We exposed the containers to different storage conditions, for example untouched, refrigerated or heated. To detect the presence of BPA, we used a BPA ELISA kit, which contains an enzyme that combines with BPA and can then be stained. Using a microtitre plate reader, we measured the colour absorbance at 450 nm to determine the BPA concentrations. That test confirmed our hypothesis: Consumption of food that has been stored in plastic leads to the ingestion of BPA. Containers that were stored for a longer period of time or at elevated temperatures had higher BPA concentrations. Another important factor for migration is the content of the can (water, oil or even alcohol).
