Internships for school students

The field Technical Thermodynamics also contributes to the early promotion of young talent in the STEM field by providing technical support for student internships. In the last two weeks, the student Maria Krasnova (Fig. 1) from the Goetheschule Ilmenau completed her internship in the department. Her task consisted of planning and recording an educational film (Fig. 2), which students of the master's program Regenerative Energy Technologyfor their compulsory practical course on the Stirling engine. The benefit is that the actual practical experiment can then be carried out more effectively and efficiently by the students. Teaching films follow the pedagogical concept of the inverted classroom and also contribute to the digitalization of teaching.

During her practical work, Maria not only acquired the specific media technology and media pedagogical elements, but also learned the thermodynamic relationships based on the principle of sustainability. A Stirling engine is a heat engine that enables the emission-free provision of mechanical work, using regenerative heat sources from geothermal and solar thermal applications, or simply recycling waste heat from production processes that would otherwise be disposed of unused into the environment. Students in engineering programs would probably not be hurt by completing this internship either.

Maria was professionally supported during her internship by our colleague and "director" Christian Karcher.Christian Karcher and of course also received support from many other colleagues.