The Genius teacher training workshops at the Daimler plant in Wörth have already built up a tradition. Every February, the plant in Wörth opens its doors to teachers. And once again this year, about 50 teachers of classes five to ten accepted this invitation. The workshop participants learned how they can use the Genius instructional materials on safety technology in their classrooms.
In the theoretical part of the workshop, the lecturer Armin Ruch, a senior teacher at the University of Education in Schwäbisch Gmünd, presented the workbook to the participants and offered them many valuable tips on how to optimally use the material in their classroom instruction. During the subsequent practical part of the workshop, the participants faced a special challenge.
Here they tested a construction kit that enabled them to build a circuit for automatic lights using a plug-in board, test the system, adjust it, and put it into operation. Vehicle headlights equipped with state-of-the-art lighting technology always optimally adapt themselves to the existing light conditions so that the driver can see as well as possible at dusk or in fog. This increases the safety of all vehicle occupants and also other road users.
The workshop was supplemented with exhibition stands created by pupils from the Konrad Adenauer Realschule (secondary school) and the Integrierte Gesamtschule Wörth (comprehensive school). To the teachers at the workshop, the pupils from these two cooperating schools proudly presented the models they had built and the innovative inventions they had come up with during their classes in technical subjects.
I was very happy to see that the teachers participating in the workshops use the instructional materials with enthusiasm and also plan to use them later on in their own classrooms. The new digital content in particular was received very positively by the teachers.
An ongoing offer from Genius
For the fifth time, teachers from the federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland were offered the opportunity to participate in the Genius teacher training workshop at the Wörth plant. The teaching unit “A Connected World” was presented during the most recent workshop. There was also a premiere in Wörth: The new digital supplements that are now available for classroom instruction were presented for the first time to the teachers in Wörth.
The current instructional materials on “Safety Technology” have been supplemented with brief explanatory videos that can be called up by means of a QR code. These videos make it possible to explain complex content and relationships in a simpler and easily understandable way and thus to make classroom instruction more varied. The videos make it easier for teachers to transfer what they have learned into practice.
Impressions of Wörth
Genius
The STEM educational initiative Genius is Daimler’s long-term response to young people’s declining interest in technical subjects. Genius is thus making a major contribution to Daimler’s sustainability strategy within its corporate social responsibility framework. You can find more information about Daimler AG’s educational activities for children and young people at the Genius Community website Genius Community