Children and young people work with 3D printers, laser cutters, cutting plotters and microcontrollers in the open workshop, discovering that technology is fun and can help them realise their own ideas.
Educational research leads to leisure activities for children and young people
The ‘Young Creatives’ programme inspires children and young people aged 10 to 16 to take an interest in technology and making. Between 2 and 4 p.m. on Friday afternoons, an average of 15 to 20 children and young people tinker with 3D modelling, coding and design, using materials such as filament, poplar plywood and textiles. Regular participants grab a laptop and work intently on a project for two hours. In between, they take new children by the hand, who quickly get involved. ‘For an open programme like this, you need to create an organisational and technical setting that is clearly geared towards the target group,’ emphasises Magdalena Virgo, research assistant and lab manager at Green FabLab.
The Young Creatives project emerged from research conducted by Kathrin Smolarczyk, a research assistant working with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rolf Becker, as part of the BMFTR-funded third-party project ‘EnvironMINT’. The question: What kind of learning spaces are needed to enable children and young people to get creative in STEM subjects in their free time? How can cross-setting cooperation with parents and teachers be achieved? What are the obstacles? Which offerings, applications, topics and purposes are successful? What are the decisive factors that make children come back and ensure that the offering does not end up being a flash in the pan?
Participatory programme development: children and young people help shape the programme
Today’s programme is the result of various questionnaire, interview and focus group studies and was developed in a total of three four-week cycles with children and young people from Kamp-Lintfort. While the initial focus was on identifying best practice examples, the Young Creatives themselves have now become a success story that inspires others. The research results and a practical handbook are available to the community as open source material. Even today, the programme is still being continuously developed and adapted today. Kathrin Smolarczyk gives an insight into the programme: stehen der Community Open Source zur Verfügung. Auch heute noch wird das Angebot stetig weiterentwickelt und angepasst. Kathrin Smolarczyk gibt einen Einblick:
„Im Green FabLab finden die jungen Menschen einen niederschwelligen Zugang zu fortschrittlicher Technik und passendes Lernmaterial, mit dem sie eigenständig vorankommen; alles darf verwendet und ausprobiert werden.“
Many children often don’t dare to participate in similar STEM programmes because of their low self-efficacy. With us, it’s different. Because other aspects, such as creativity, are at the forefront and social integration is at the core of what we offer, they have the chance to convince themselves otherwise. After participating, the children go home feeling empowered, convinced that they can do it!
Funding project ends – but the Young Creatives are here to stay
The EnvironMINT project is due end in December 2025. However, Kathrin Smolarczyk and Magdalena Virgo are working on the project and are confident that the Young Creatives will continue. Supported by Miriam Drazek from the LabLandschaften team in the TransRegINT project, they are working to open up the Green FabLab to other groups, such as senior citizens. Together, they ran two family workshops in November. Kathrin Smolarczyk emphasises: ‘Research was not neglected in this offer, of course: parental involvement is a little-researched topic. How can parents be involved? And how do children benefit from this?’ Things remain exciting at the Green FabLab.