“Auf die Plätze! Citizen Science in deiner Stadt“ (On your mark, get set, go! Citizen Science in your city) is a competition for citizen science projects in order to raise awareness around them and promote structural measures for citizen science activities on the ground. Local actors from academia and civil society as well as municipal administration and business, who want to explore local topics together with citizens, can participate. The aim is to make it possible to experience citizen science locally, and anchor it in a sustainable way. Contestants can submit their project ideas for citizen science projects, and five finalists develop their idea further into a concept with 5.000 euros each. In a second round three of the five finalists will receive 50.000 euros each to implement their local citizen science idea and actions. The competition “Auf die Plätze! Citizen Science in deiner Stadt” is implemented by Wissenschaft im Dialog and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin in close collaboration with the Citizen Science plattform „Bürger schaffen Wissen”.
The online competition “Fast Forward Science“ honours people who are not only passionate about science themselves, but can also inspire others. The contestants are passionate about research, innovative multimedia formats and communication. Whether you are a student, postdoc, vlogger or communicator, you can submit social media contributions on scientific topics. The aim is to convey current research - understandable, targeted and with an aha-experience. The online competition is worth a total of 23.000 euros. It has taken place since 2013 and is a joint project of Wissenschaft im Dialog and Stifterverband.
The Hochschulwettbewerb is a communication challenge for young scientists from all research areas. Open to college and university students, PhD students and young scientists from all research areas, competitors are asked to design projects on the topic of the current German Science Year. The challenge is twofold: On the one hand competitors must show the value of science for society in an interactive way and on the other they must present research results related to the working life of the future understandably.
I’m a Scientist is an online education activity suitable from Year 5 onwards which connects students with scientists. Through live chats and a question tool, children and teenagers can directly communicate with researchers. In this manner, they learn about the daily routine of scientists and their current research. They get to know that scientists are also "just normal people". In addition, students can vote for their favorite scientist. The winner with the most votes receives a prize of 500 €, which will be invested in science communication projects.
The idea for I’m a Scientist originates from the United Kingdom. In 2022 the project is part of the Science Year 2022 – Participate! and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
What makes a good school? What are the challenges of everyday school life? And how can they be solved with digital and technical ideas? The project Make Your School – A Workshop for Ideas gives students the opportunity to improve their own school environment and to experiment with programming and electronics. The hackdays contribute to improving digital education and bring the pupils into contact with a broad range of digital and electronic tools. Students also develop their abilities to identify problems and create opportunities for improvement, as well as working independently to develop solutions. Wissenschaft im Dialog, with the support of the Klaus Tschira Foundation, aims to improve digital learning in schools through Make Your School. In the 2019/2020 school year forty hackdays will take place at schools throughout Germany.
Make Your School is subject to scientific monitoring in order to ensure quality and that it meets current standards. The Technische Universität Braunschweig began monitoring Make Your School in February 2018. Francine Meyer is investigating the effectiveness of the hackdays at schools as part of her doctoral work, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Monika Taddicken in the Department of Communication and Media Science.
