XLAB-Goettingen Experimentallaboratory,

Goldschmidtstrasse 1, 37077 Goettingen, Germany

In nearly all industrialized countries the number of students enrolling in natural science studies at universities has been decreasing dramatically for more than 15 years. On the other hand science and technology provide the key to the problems and challenges that our societies are facing today.

Much effort has to be invested to encourage young people to pursue scientific careers. Young people have to get enthusiastic about the great research adventure of today.

Students should get to know how to do research: what it means to work in a laboratory, what it means to solve a theoretical problem, and for what purpose a computer is really needed, instead for fun. That means students should get to know the reality!

Of course it is not enough to have an open-doors research institute for a day; it is not sufficient to give a public lecture, and it is not enough to visit students at school and to show some spectacular experiments.

There is a tremendous need of changing the teaching methods at schools, both at primary and secondary schools. This seems to be same in all industrialist countries as it was shown in the results of the worldwide investigations like TIMSS and Pisa.

Of course for primary schools and secondary schools different teaching methods are necessary. Education in primary school will focus mainly on the phenomena observed in the experiments whereas in secondary school the topics should reflect more and more the latest results in research. In both cases hands-on experiments play an important role and theory should come along with the experiments and not separately or exclusively, as this is the reality in most school systems.

The economical situations of high schools do not allow to install sophisticated experiments: the equipment is much too expensive and teachers are not trained in supervising experiments on a more or less scientific level.

In contrast, the establishment of central laboratories makes good economic sense: Central laboratories can serve regional schools and may also be accessible nationwide and - as is the case for XLAB – worldwide.

Concurrent with the Bologna Process XLAB is following the general aims of the EU in promoting the attractiveness of the European Higher Education Area and promoting the mobility of the students and encouraging them to take up university studies abroad. In particular XLAB tries to raise student’s interest in science subjects in order to increase the number of future scientists.

The XLAB tries to provide an atmosphere of real research laboratories with authentic tools and machines and most important lecturers, who are experienced scientists.

XLAB offers a variety of practical experiments in biology, chemistry, geosciences, computer science, mathematics, and physics. The experiments are designed and supervised by scientists. Scientists and science schoolteachers work together in a very tight collaboration; the performance of the experimental courses is supported by qualified technical assistance. This guarantees the specialist scientific knowledge, experienced didactical teaching, and successful performance regarding the technical prerequisites.

Students work in the laboratories for the entire day. They concentrate on one subject; that means there is no interruption by other lessons as it is the case at school. This provides an intensive learning at a level, which can be compared with university teaching.

Most of the students are very satisfied with their progress in learning by doing hands-on experiments. Others learn, that taking up university studies in science would be not the right decision for them. This is very important and prevents them from frustrating experiences during later university studies. Another group of students get to know about non-scientific-careers in the field of science, and technology, which is also very important, since well-educated technical assistants are of great demand in scientific research.

The target groups are:

XLAB started in August 2000 and after three school years more than 10 000 students did experiments at about 22 500 days (students x days). Many individual students and teachers with their classes come again and again. (Fig.1 and 2)

In November 2004 XLAB will move to a new building, especially designed for teaching high school students in the various science subjects. The four story – nicely colored -building has laboratories and seminar rooms to teach 160 students simultaneously. Each floor is dedicated to one of the four subjects but nevertheless the interdisciplinary character of modern research can be experienced. For example, all the equipment needed for studying neurobiology will be found in the physics department and experiments in biochemistry will be carried out in the chemistry laboratories. Moving to the new building does not mean, that XLAB will become independent from the research laboratories. Whenever special measurements like NMR-Spectroscopy, electron microscopy and many others are necessary, the students work within the different research laboratories of the university and the Max-Planck-Institutes in Göttingen.

In 2003 and 2004 XLAB organized International Science Camps. 2003 the camp brought together 44 students from 12 different countries and in 2004 we count 35 students from 17 different countries. Teaching is done in English and, of course, the common language of the camp is English as well.

Science camps last for 3 and a half weeks. The scientific program takes three weeks. Each student chooses three weekly courses out of a program of 12 different experimental courses in the fields of natural sciences. (Fig 3) Students present the results of the each course to each other on Saturday afternoon. In the third week an excursion to Berlin highlights the social program.

Science is international, and the scientific community resembles a worldwide family. There are no prejudices with respect to nationality and political or religious affiliations. Scientists from all over the globe, having a common interest in special research topics, meet each other at international congresses and workshops at various places on all continents.

The XLAB international Science Camp conveys this experience to our future scientists. Young people, 17-21 years of age, will regularly meet in summer in Goettingen, discover their common interest in sciences, work and live together, make international friendship across the borders of cultural heritage, get to know the country of their host, and get a feeling of what it means to become a member of the various international scientific communities.