In the last paragraph of my contribution to the 2002 Research Workshop at Visegrad [1] I mentioned plans for future developments of the “Deutsche SchülerAkademie” (German Pupils Academy), a residential summer programme for highly able and motivated senior high school pupils (grades 10-12, 16 to 18 year-olds) in Germany: 1) an intensified cooperation with our Eastern neighbours, 2) the establishment of a summer academy for junior high school pupils with a strong emphasis on mathematics and science. As it was possible to raise additional funds both plans could be materialized.

A grant from the Haniel Foundation enabled us (that is Bildung und Begabung e.V., a non-profit association financed mainly by the German Federal Government and by the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft [Donors’ Association for the Promotion of Sciences and Humanities in Germany]) to establish a multi-national 16 days summer academy with four courses and a total of 64 participants from Germany, Poland, Hungary and from the Czech and Slovak Republics. The working language is German; the venue is a boarding school in the Benedictine abbey of Metten, Bavaria. The multi-national academy follows the same proven educational and organizational principles as the regular academies. During a pilot phase from 2003 to 2005 three such academies will be held. After the first two very successful programmes there are good chances for a continued and even extended support by the Haniel Foundation after 2005.

A donation from the Zurich Group (an international insurance and financial services company) provided the necessary financial support for the realization of the other plan, which is the focus of this paper.

While our summer academies for senior secondary pupils undoubtedly play a most important role for the development of talents, motivation, study habits, self-esteem, social contacts etc. (cf. [2]), it was felt from the very beginning that this type of programme should already be offered to younger pupils as is practised by e.g. the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, or the Talent Identification Program (TIP) at the Duke University, Durham, N.C.

In Germany gifted and talented pupils in the lower level (grades 5 – 10) of secondary schools face little additional challenge or support from extracurricular enrichment programmes. They all have to follow the prescribed timetable of their class without the possibility to select subjects. Therefore, an early encounter with interesting and demanding topics in outside-of-school settings is highly desirable.

A matter of serious concern in Germany, as in many other countries, is the dramatically declining number of university students in physics, mathematics, chemistry and engineering. Many pupils tend to avoid these presumably “tough” subjects already in the upper level of secondary school (grades 11 – 13) thus excluding these subjects more or less as options for university studies. Therefore pupils should have an opportunity much earlier in their school years to explore their interests and abilities and be encouraged to engage in activities in these fields – and this is especially important for girls who are still severely under-represented and who supposedly form a largely untapped reservoir of talents.

By the end of 2002, when it came to the planning of a first residential summer academy for the lower secondary school level, it was decided to aim at pupils in grades 7 and 8 (12 to 14 year-olds) and to put a strong emphasis on mathematics and sciences without, however, totally neglecting the humanities. Furthermore it was decided to restrict participation to pupils of the federal state of Rhineland Palatinate where the academy was to take place in a boarding school in Neuerburg, a small town near the border to Luxembourg. So it was possible to successfully apply for an additional grant from the State Ministry of Education which helped to reduce the participation fee for the pupils by 30 percent (from 500 to 350 Euro).

Applicants were expected to be highly motivated and to have already demonstrated exceptional achievement in or out of school, e.g. successful participation in an intellectually challenging competition. The majority of applicants came through recommendations from schools where each school could nominate not more than one or two candidates.

The number of courses was reduced from six in the “senior” academies to four with up to 16 participants each. This should help reduce possible problems during the three years pilot phase.

The Junior Academy Rhineland Palatinate was held from 24 July to 9 August with a total of of 62 boys and girls. The academy was opened in the presence of the participants, their parents and the staff by the Rhineland Palatinate State Minister of Education and a board member of the Zurich Group. On the final day the participants proudly presented the methods and results of their course work to their parents. The following courses were offered:

1. Planes, knots and graphs (an introduction to graph theory)

2. Evolution – what’s behind it? (molecular biology and evolution)

3. Applied aerostatics and aerodynamics (the physics of flying)

4. Die Nibelungen (Middle High German epic poem from the 13^th century which has influenced Germanic arts like no other literary work over 800 years; introduction to literary science and the reception of the work)

Course work covered about half the time of the academic days while the other half was filled with all kinds of activities where pupils from all courses would mix – music and sports being the most important ones. About 60 percent of the pupils played an instrument, therefore a full time musician was part of the academic staff (site director and assistant, and eight instructors, two for each course) as is the rule in the “senior” academies. He conducted daily choir rehearsals and arranged and advised instrumental ensembles to work towards a quite remarkable public concert. Musical activities have a strong integrating effect on the whole academy. Other activities were drama, visual arts, games and excursions.

In addition to this academy, two other regional programmes were offered in 2003 by institutions in Saarland (30 participants) and Baden-Württemberg (60 participants) with a duration of 8 and 14 days. They aimed at pupils in grades 7 to 9 and 8 to 9 respectively.

On the whole this first Junior academy was a big success. The participants were enthusiastic about the 16 days. They praised the excellent working atmosphere, the amount of independence and responsibility they were granted by their “cool” instructors, and the absence of “school marks”. The course work was judged to be demanding, challenging, and rewarding. The instructors were very pleased with the high motivation and the quality of course work and presentations given by the pupils. They observed, however, certain differences between the “juniors” and the “seniors” in the traditional academies:

1. Many of the juniors had difficulties systematically developing and following a path from a specific problem through to a solution. They lacked not only methodical abilities but also endurance and the insight to be responsible for their own learning.

2. The pupils needed many impulses from outside to achieve learning results, they needed detailed instructions and task descriptions but then they set off with joy, dedication and creativity, so that the instructors had to take care that the pupils did not become overexcited.

3. These pupils usually hold top positions in their home school. Thus they are not used to criticism and can hardly handle it. They had to learn to accept critique as a chance for improvement and growth.

4. The “juniors” seemed to be less willing and able to devise their own leisure time activities. Due to their younger age and less practice their musical abilities (playing an instrument) were less developed; this influenced the selection of scores for concerts.

5. While most of the concept and structure of the “senior” academies can be transferred to the junior academy without substantial changes some aspects need special attention: the juniors need more guidance and an emphasis on the development of autonomous learning and knowledge acquisition and the ability to work in teams.

To improve the group dynamics from the very beginning and to get detailed information about the individual abilities and knowledge levels of the participants it was recommended that a preparatory meeting with the pupils be held well ahead of the next academy in the following year.

During the summer of 2004 Bildung und Begabung e.V. organized a second junior academy at the same site in Neuerburg (more details may be found in the internet under www.schuelerakademie.de/dja/2004/programm.html). The size was kept the same as in the year before (four courses, 64 participants) and the duration was again 16 days. This time financial support came (once again) from the State Ministry of Education and from the Klaus Tschira Foundation, Heidelberg while the participants paid a nominal fee of 350 Euro which could be reduced or waived for families in need. The participants and the other two partners each provided roughly one third of the total budget of 63,600 Euro. The following courses were offered:

1. Discreet communication (encoding and cryptography)

2. Ecology of running waters (examining the properties of the ecosystem of a river)

3. The experience of the starry sky in history and today (astronomy and culture)

4. On the road to Canossa (introduction to historical research)

Three months prior to the academy a preparatory meeting of the instructors and participants was held on a weekend from Friday to Sunday which helped them considerably to become familiar with each other and with the boarding school, to clarify expectations with regard to course work, and to learn and improve techniques of knowledge acquisition and presentation. As a result the academy itself started much smoother and faster and allowed productive work from the very beginning. On the whole, the second junior academy was very successful and we again received enthusiastic comments from the participants.

In Darmstadt (Hesse) an academy was held by the Kinder- und Jugendakademie Südhessen e.V.; it lasted 14 days with four courses and 15 participants each from grades 8 to 10 (www.kijash.de). A preparatory meeting was held six weeks prior to the academy. The course titles were

1. Memory and design (art, architecture, psychology)

2. Can luck be calculated? (probability theory, set theory, combinatorics)

3. “Attention, top secret!” (introduction to cryptography)

4. “It’s your world” (introduction to the function and structure of the United Nations)

In Homburg (Saarland) an academy was organized by Beratungsstelle Hochbegabung Dillingen which lasted 10 days (www.iq-xxl.de). The 50 participants came from grades 7 to 10. This academy was somewhat differently organized as it offered several workshops which referred to the common theme “communication”. Participants attended each workshop in groups of about ten for some days before moving to the next workshop. By this they received an overview of the general theme while practicing different methods of knowledge production. Parallel to the workshops methodical training was offered on research methods, observation and documentation, visualization and presentation techniques. The workshops centred around the following themes:

In Adelsheim (Baden-Württemberg) the Oberschulamt Karlsruhe organized an academy which lasted 13 days with six courses and 15 participants each from grades 8 and 9 (www.scienceacademy.de). A preparatory meeting was held 14 weeks prior to the academy and a reunion took place six weeks after the academy where a documentation of the course work was produced. The course titles were:

1. Biological engineering? Molecular biological experiments and their ethic reflection

2. Pinball, breakout & friends (physics of movement)

3. Trendy, but somehow strange: Alcopops & Co. (chemistry of food and drugs)

4. How robots tick (robotics)

5. A look at nature: Examining woods and waters

6. Applied research/development/economics. A project with a serious background