Getting children and young people excited about STEM & Life Sciences

Our future is characterized by rapid technological progress, increasing global crises and great unpredictability, in which technological applications are now used in all areas of life. Children and young people should therefore be able to develop their potential in order to find their way in our technologically shaped society and to participate in socially relevant discussions on current and future issues. This also means getting children and young people excited about the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; in German “MINT”), as they give rise to numerous future-oriented career profiles. As a high-tech location, Switzerland is also particularly dependent on well-trained specialists in the STEM fields.

mint & pepper

For more than 10 years, mint & pepper, the outreach project of Wyss Zurich (ETH Zurich / University of Zurich), has been creating exciting offers thanks to special insights into cutting-edge research and building on a strong collaborative network. With these offers, children and young people discover their talents, broaden their horizons for their choice of education and career, and are able to use their individual strengths to shape their and all of our futures.

We inspire children and young people in Switzerland for STEM, Life Sicences & Entrepreneurship with our direct access to current research and our s experiential and specially designed offers. In these, they learn to better understand our technology-driven world. They develop solutions for real challenges not only with their heads, but also with their hands.

Finally, it is all about helping children and young people to gain their inner strength. A spirit of discovery, creativity, responsibility, reflection, perseverance, humor and empathy are just a selection of the qualities that come out within the teamwork of our challenges. Through our offerings, we help children and young people to explore their talents. They broaden their horizons for their choice of education and career and use their individual strengths – just pepper – to shape their future and the future of us all.

We look forward to seeing you

At the exhibition stand you will get an insight into the different offers and can put some of them to the test yourself, such as the tilting system of a cargo port or the 3D printed heart.

Tilting systems can be found in many different industries, such as the food industry. In our example, you can steer spaceships through a sophisticated tilting system manually with a controller or through a pre-programmed programme to the correct terminal. We are curious to see whether your spaceship finds its way to the terminal.

In addition, learn about the heart using a 3D printed example and identify disease patterns based on its behaviour. Assign possible treatment methods and save human lives in this way.

For children from 6-12 years we offer different workshops on Saturday and Sunday (in German):

Thymio: Der Weg durchs Labyrinth

Magic Cube – Faszination Elektrotechnik

Parken wie ein Profi – Entdecke die Welt der Rückfahrassistenten