New Think Tank for Sustainable Mobility

Junior Campus Berlin expands successful centre of learning

The BMW Group and the Foundation of the German Museum of Technology in Berlin open new workshops on road safety and electric mobility

Enabling young people to experience electric mobility: Starting today, that is exactly what a workshop run by the Junior Campus in the German Museum of Technology makes possible, a unique event unparalleled in Germany. The news was announced by the BMW Group and the Foundation of the German Museum of Technology in Berlin during a press conference with Mark Rackles, Berlin’s Secretary of State for Education.
The Junior Campus is a joint project run by the Foundation of the German Museum of Technology in Berlin and the BMW Group. This facility in the German Museum of Technology has been providing workshops, supervised by the museum’s educational staff, on the topics of mobility, sustainability and the natural sciences since 2012.

In addition to the workshops offered to date, which are designed for elementary school pupils, two new programs are now available: Twelve to fifteen year olds can now grapple for the first time with the current challenges relating to sustainable mobility, and day-care children aged from three to five years are encouraged to playfully engage with the topic of road safety.

“The Junior Campus in Berlin is a success story. It is making an important contribution to our educational landscape in its role as an extracurricular centre of learning that brings current issues to the children’s attention using modern teaching methods. I am personally particularly pleased that the program is being expanded to include electric mobility, a key issue of the future. In Berlin in particular – the international showcase of electric mobility – it is important not only to acquaint our young people with the opportunities, but also with the challenges presented by these technologies,” said Mark Rackles, Secretary of State for Education in the Berlin Senate Department for Education, Youth and Science.

“The demand for these Junior Campus workshops is enormous. Over the past three years almost 24,000 children and young people have taken part in our workshops. Without the substantial commitment made by the BMW Group none of this would have been possible. So we are very pleased with the collaboration and the opportunity of extending the curriculum of the Junior Campus,” said Prof. Dr. Dirk Böndel, Chairman of the Foundation of the German Museum of Technology in Berlin.

“Encouraging the youngest in terms of a sustainable future is especially important to us. We are therefore delighted that the Junior Campus in the German Museum of Technology in Berlin enjoys such a great degree of popularity. The new workshop on electric mobility provides the twelve to fifteen year olds not only with technical skills, it also presents them with the current challenges of our time.” “And it may even inspire one or two of the engineers of tomorrow,” added Nicola Brüning, Director of the BMW Group Representative Office in Berlin.

New workshops on road safety and electric mobility

From today, seventh and eighth grade students can wrestle with the functionality of the electric drive in a new program, which is unique in Germany. The young people work in teams, learning more and more about sustainable, future-oriented mobility – in addition to the environmentally friendly generation of electricity and its storage, the networking of the urban environment also plays an important role.

In addition, the Junior Campus is now able to facilitate the sustainable acquisition of knowledge for children aged from three to five years. Employing teaching methods tailored to the needs of early childhood, the youngest are sent on an expedition, exploring the topics of transport and the environment.

Presentation of a BMW i3 and an e-scooter to the museum

Sustainability and environmentally sound technologies play an important role for both partners in the collaboration. As early as the end of last year, the BMW Group placed a BMW i3 at the disposal of the Foundation of the German Museum of Technology in Berlin, to be used as a company car. A solar charging station is located directly in front of the Science Centre, providing a source of power.

The permanent exhibition “Man in Motion – On the Road with Cars & Co.” at the museum also includes a special section on the history of electric mobility. To coincide with the opening of the new workshop, the BMW Group presented a BMW C Evolution electric scooter to the museum, an exhibit which will soon be seen in the permanent collection at the museum.

All of the workshops at the Junior Campus Berlin are free, only the reduced museum admission fee is charged. Applications for pre-registration can be made at www.sdtb.de/Junior-Campus.2385.0.html

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