KITEC

“KITEC” GIVES SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN THE CHANCE TO EXPERIENCE TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY — OFTEN FOR THE FIRST TIME

Maik, a fourth-grader at the Mozart School in Mannheim, has written a sentence in his exercise book that would put a smile on any teacher’s face:“Why do we have to stop so early?” In fact Maik has written his question in a very special book. The title on the cover is “Mein Werkzeug- Führerschein”—MyToolGuide. Inside are illustrations of a dozen or so tools with descriptions of how to hammer nails, use files and saws, with drawings and photos of things like wheels, wooden vehicles, and craftsmen using tools. “It’s better than math,” says Maik, “The only time I have to add anything is when I’m measuring with my ruler. And I don’t have to sit still all the time—I can move around instead.”

LESSONS JUST FLY BY
Maik is not the only one who loves the lessons. “KiTec is the only subject in which the children would happily stay for another two hours,” says Rita Malacarne, Maik’s teacher. KiTec is short for Kids’ Technology, one of four pioneering projects by Wissensfabrik, the Knowledge Factory business initiative committed to educational projects throughout Germany. Some 60 German companies have now joined the initiative, promoting projects at preschool and elementary schools with which they enter into long-term partnerships. One such partnership has been forged between Bilfinger Berger and Mannheim’s Mozart School where third- and fourth-graders are getting their first insight into the world of technology through play. “Learning with KiTec toolboxes will help to turn curious children into the technicians and engineers of tomorrow,” hopes Manfred Schmidt of Bilfinger Berger, which currently supports eleven elementary schools in Mannheim.

Video: Kids discover technology

HAMMERING, SAWING, SANDING
There are several notes hanging on the board, listing the things that the students have just worked out together with teacher Rita Malacarne—the tools and materials they need to make a stick puppet. Plywood panels and nails, screws and wire, a saw, drill, hammer, pliers, file, screwdriver. “Can we start now?” Jasmina grumbles reproachfully. Then the noise level begins to soar. The 25 children hammer and saw with such concentration that many of them don’t even hear the bell for recess. Tugay saws Leon’s rectangle of wood into a square.“I’m good at sawing,”says Tugay. Later Leon will help Tugay with the nailing.The skill and certainty with which the children handle their tools shows how much practice they have had. Before moving on to stick puppets, they made little cars with rubber-tired wooden wheels, with or without steering, or even powered by a balloon which thrust the car forward when the air was let out. Teacher Rita Malacarne might even let them build a drawbridge or a block and tackle, a cable car or a Morse code kit, following the suggestions in the teacher’s new handbook from the Knowledge Factory.

FORMATIVE EXPERIENCES
With facilities like these, the students in this class rank among Germany’s more privileged. Craft and design lessons are not on the early curriculum. Elementary schools are only required to give children a basic experience of handicrafts. Because of the lack of tools and materials, however, they have to make do with odds and ends: cardboard, glue and scissors. The exact opposite is what is needed —the ability to learn in real-life situations, with real materials and real problems to solve, for example, how to join materials together so they don’t come apart. “Children have to work out such things in order to acquire positive learning experiences that shape their lives,” says Michael Fritz, General Manager of the Transfer Center for Neurosciences and Learning (ZNL) in Ulm, which together with the Department of the Didactics of Technology at the University of Dortmund was responsible for developing the toolboxes and material packs as well as the overall concept, including the teacher’s handbook. “In today’s world it is very rare for eight- to ten-year-olds to have any contact with tools,” Fritz comments sadly. A country that is famous for the inventiveness of its engineers and the skills of its craftsmen should find that disturbing. The hope that an early encounter with technical subjects might influence children in their subsequent choice of career is not just wishful thinking. “Neuroscience, psychology and the study of education have already taught us that allowing children to experiment and discover and acquire positive experience sets sustained markers in the brain which determine patterns for the future,”explains Fritz, who is a trained elementary and high school teacher and was a school principal for many years. It is a known fact that many adult scientists and engineers acquired their first experience in childhood—encouraged by fathers, neighbors, uncles or teachers who had some experience with technology and took pleasure in it. “Our decisive attitudes and interests are developed in childhood,” Fritz emphasizes.

(Text: Stefan Scheytt, Photos: Eric Vazzoler)