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An evening on a campus brimming with ideas, experiments and hands-on activities for young and old, big and small – that’s the Night of Sciences (Nacht der Wissenschaften) at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences (NdW). It is a firm fixture on the region’s calendar of events, attracting crowds even in bad weather. This year’s event on 23 June 2023 proved just that – around 2,000 visitors attended.
Whilst many people usually like to relax outdoors on campus at beer tables and benches when the weather is fine, this year visitors flocked even more enthusiastically into the buildings of Mittweida University of Applied Sciences. From 6 pm until midnight, visitors were treated to illuminating insights into research and study, with open laboratories and studios – and, of course, the chance to meet night-owl students, staff and lecturers. They enthusiastically demonstrated and explained the projects they are working on. The Night of Sciences in Mittweida also provided the ideal study guidance for those embarking on life after school.
Inspiring even the youngest children to take an interest in science is more than just a side effect: As a family event, the Mittweida Night of Sciences focuses on entertaining activities: delicious ice cream made using nitrogen, the explosive and dazzling experimental physics lecture, and plenty of eco-friendly seed bombs to take home were just some of the programme highlights that captured the essence of the event. The aim here is for children to develop an interest in science – and not to lose it as they grow older.
The paper aeroplane competition also fits in well with this, and, following its second running this year, is set to become a NdW classic. In the run-up to the event, the HSMW had sent thousands of paper aeroplane folding sheets to primary schools and nurseries in the region. At the NdW, the children took to the field in Mittweida with their ‘pilots’. The two winning aeroplanes each won a family ticket to Sonnenlandpark.
The ‘IntelligEnte’ demonstrate just how much interest there is in this form of science entertainment. The cloth bag featuring the 2023 NdW motif was available free of charge that evening, but only in exchange for fully completed stamp cards documenting the stations run by the mostly young early-career researchers: 471 of the printed ‘IntelligEnte’ cloth bags were handed out at the counter of the joint information office run by the university and the university town in T9 on Technikumplatz. A few remaining bags are still available there at a low price.
Sustainability is a major topic, including at the NdW: the flower meadow above the Centre for Media and Social Work was actually intended to be co-created by visitors to the Night of Sciences (Nacht der Wissenschaften). However, due to the weather, this wasn’t possible. So the prepared daisy and Konrade seedlings were quickly packed up for people to take home and will soon be blooming in a riot of colour on balconies and in gardens across the region.
Another major topic: ChatGPT is a must-have at any event in 2023 that focuses on knowledge. At the NdW, there was a workshop on programming with the chatbot.
Just in time for the fire show on Technikumplatz at 11.30 pm, the rain stopped, and 250 visitors experienced the acrobatic interplay of physics and chemistry at first hand as the NdW drew to a close.
The date for the next Night of Sciences has already been set: 7 June 2024.
