KIWI Research Days: Children discover textbooks from times past and far-flung places

KIWI Research Days: Children discover textbooks from times past and far-flung places

The KIWI Research Days, an event run by the popular science and research centre Haus der Wissenschaft in Braunschweig to enable children aged 10 to 14 to take a fun and age-appropriate look behind the scenes of the region's research institutions, saw eight young people descend on the Georg Eckert Institute and its library on 8 April 2014.

On their visit to the GEI's research library, the young researchers first found out some information on Georg Eckert and his work, the library, the principal foci of its collection and some fascinating facts about textbooks. Books from Croatia, Saudi Arabia and China were on hand to help the children show off their geographical knowledge and make comparisons between these very diverse media and the textbooks they use at school.

After this, it was time for the young people to step into the shoes of a real textbook researcher and explore historic textbooks from the period of the German Empire (1871–1918) to find out what children in the "olden days" were taught about countries such as China and the US, about the Romans and the medieval knights.

This was the GEI's second year of participation in the KIWI scheme, which has been taking place every year in the Easter holidays and autumn half-terms since 2009.

Find out more (in German) at
http://www.hausderwissenschaft.org/hdw/veranstaltungen/KIWI_Seite.html