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.
What constitutes a coherent and successful presentation? How can one improve one’s self-confidence on stage, and which methods are most effective for comprehensive presentations? Presentations are an inherent part of our daily school life and everyday work. The project “Jugend präsentiert” provides training, concepts and teaching materials to enhance and impart presentation skills, focused on science subjects. Students benefit from the materials applied in class and can participate in the annual competition on presentations in science. The competition is declared nation-wide and amongst German schools abroad, and offers students the opportunity to practice their presentation skills beyond school. During the process of the competition, the students also receive training on presentation skills from professional rhetoric coaches.
In the school year of 2020/2021 “Jugend präsentiert” started “Jugend präsentiert Kids”, a programme to encourage presentation skills already in the early school years. Teachers are invited to attend training and to receive teaching materials. They also get support to organise presentation competitions in their schools.
A team of scientists from the department of rhetoric at the University of Tübingen develop and provide the materials for teacher training days and teaching resources. The project “Jugend präsentiert” is initiated by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung in cooperation with Wissenschaft im Dialog.
Since 2000, each year, Wissenschaft im Dialog and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research jointly proclaim the Science Year, aiming to shed light on the major challenges of our society from a scientific perspective. Wissenschaft im Dialog runs several activities as parts of the 2020 Science Year, for instance the floating science center MS Wissenschaft.