About 300 children in steel blue Südschule T-shirts are hopping, dancing, jumping, running, shouting, and laughing like bouncy balls on the schoolyard. Among them are teachers in light green T-shirts and many parents, grandparents, and siblings. There is coffee, cake, drinks, and grilled food. They are celebrating the conclusion of the "Digicamp," a truly extraordinary project week. "I am an audio play inventor," a boy introduces his project. "I am Lena and I am a reporter," a student explains, who, together with her group, recorded, edited, and broadcast the daily news about the individual projects. Emilie and Anton programmed the game "Catch 3.0" in their team using the programming environment "Scratch." Felix, Leonardo, and Moritz report from their team: "We built a robot out of cardboard. Inside is a Megabit hard drive that we programmed." One group created an audio story with cool sounds, another took photos with the tablet’s camera app and put together a picture puzzle collage, and so on. The children also made a school film – super exciting and very imaginative. Eight different projects were offered. The children stand fearlessly in front of the large crowd and proudly present their work over the microphone.
“To ensure that the children did not spend the entire week only with digital media, they were able to independently choose an ‘alternative program’ alongside the fixed Digicamp projects, such as physical activities in the gym, an escape room that required them to ‘read out’ the solution, the KiTec technology room, printing the word ‘Südschule’ on a 3D printer, and much more. A truly colorful program,” says Sven Krajewski, one of the dedicated teachers. “The organizational effort was enormous, but it was well worth it!” he adds beamingly. And all the children confirm this with their tremendously loud “Thank you!” which, prompted by the parent representative, they shout together to all the teachers.
Many helping hands
"I would like to sincerely thank the incredibly dedicated teachers for their work on this project week. But we certainly couldn’t have done it alone. We had many external partners and parents – everyone contributed whatever they could," praises Principal Nadine Klimbingat. The school ambassadors Kristina and Carsten Simon, owners of the company Live-Connect-TV, along with many other parents, played a major role in preparing this project. "With Corona, the topic of digitalization at school has practically become a hobby," says Kristina Simon. "Our thanks go to the city of St. Ingbert, Lord Mayor Dr. Ulli Meyer, and Mayor Nadine Backes. They worked tirelessly to ensure the school was promptly equipped with the necessary resources, hardware, and software. But the issue is not yet resolved. Now the children are to learn how to use digital devices independently, because turning on also means turning off. Here, the foundations for the professions of the future are being laid," she adds. The Simon couple also facilitated the necessary contacts in the business world and with various chairs at Saarland University, which gladly supported the project. Finally, the Rotary Club St. Ingbert and the support association filled the remaining minor financial gaps.
The project week festival for the Digicamp, carried out under the patronage of Prime Minister Anke Rehlinger, also attracts interested representatives from politics. Member of the Bundestag Markus Uhl, state parliament member Jutta Schmitt-Lang, and Pascal Rambaud, honorary commissioner of the city of St. Ingbert for citizen participation, new media, and CISPA, are thoroughly enthusiastic, trying out the puzzles, marveling at programming skills, listening to the radio play, and admiring the school film. Local head Irene Kaiser came as a representative of the mayor, who was unavailable that day: “An exciting project week. The children are introduced to digital work in a playful manner. At the same time, they learn to solve problems and work in teams. This prepares them for the digital society and workforce of tomorrow.”
