TECHNOLINO - Apprentices visit day nurseries

A fascination for technology at three Wertheim day nurseries

A firm fixture in the calendar of the Mondfeld Catholic Day Nursery, the Reinhardshof Day Nursery and the Bestenheid Catholic Day Nursery is the visit by WOERNER apprentices to the day nurseries to inspire the children about technology. As – especially in smaller day nurseries – the children have several opportunities to take part in technological experiments with Woerner apprentices, experiments were developed by the apprentices together with trainer Helmut Ballweg on three different subject areas so that they were not repeated over the three years at which a child attends nursery school. This year, for the second time since the start of the TECHNOLINO project in 2008, the topic was “Lifting weights”. On a rocker specially constructed for this project, on which sat a larger metal cuboid simulating a dad or mum and a smaller cuboid simulating the child, the children could move the cuboids so that the child can rock the heavier “parent” block by moving it closer to the centre. Trainees Philipp and Christoph wonderfully explained the lever effect to the children, once the problem had been initially solved by the children by involving a second child on the rocker. In the next experiment, trainee Philipp explained to the children that it is easier to lift things on an inclined plane, an experiment that could be demonstrated by the example of a cuboid on an inclined plane and controlling it with a spring scale. The children recognised that things can also be moved upwards by a thread based on the same principle. They established this by sitting on a special chair and moving the chair up centimetre by centimetre, marked on the chair, with the help of a torque wrench. The children’s favourite experiment was “pulling themselves up” using a pulley. The children were allowed to pull themselves up secured by a harness to a pulley. The children waited impatiently until it was their turn. The pre-school children and the trainees explained at the final photo opportunity that they were already looking forward to WOERNER’s next visit due in July.