The focus was on a joint workshop entitled ‘Understanding the Bamberg System’. The aim was to get to know the central structures, working methods and perspectives of the Department and the University and to develop a common understanding for future work.

In addition to professional input, the time spent together provided opportunities for further exchange and discussion, as well as for getting to know each other better as a team. A joint hike rounded off the training days.

The event was a successful start to further collaboration.

The action has now gone international: thanks to our visiting scholar Dr Xiao Wu, educational institutions in China have also been inspired to take part in the challenge. Dr Wu's home university, Zhejiang International School University (video below), and Zhejiang Quzhou Experimental School (junior high school, grades 7–9) have taken up the challenge and planted trees.

We are particularly pleased that the challenge is being passed on: Zhejiang Quzhou Experimental School has also officially accepted the challenge.

We would like to thank everyone involved for their commitment and are very happy!

Dear colleagues,

The year 2025 is drawing to a close. What will we remember? 

We look back on a period full of inspiring encounters and dedicated collaboration: together, we have worked to promote STEM subjects, preserve biodiversity and provide education for sustainable development. We have implemented a plastic recycling project in cooperation with Lebenshilfe Bamberg. In the wild bee nesting project, we worked with students and schools to identify over 2,000 wild bee nests and counted 360 poppy bee nests. In addition, we were once again able to organise a young researchers' conference with research contributions from schoolgirls. As part of the City4Future teacher training programme, we addressed climate change and future ideas for urban planning and spent a morning at the Baunach secondary school together with students, the Bamberg district education office and a representative from Bosch. We are particularly pleased that the project was awarded the Climate Protection Prize by the city and district of Bamberg.

The short film ‘Der Meisenkaiser’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GeiS2HY48c) provided cultural and scientific highlights, offering insights into the research of Dr Karl-Heinz Schmidt and the Schlüchtern Ecological Research Station, which won an award at the Bamberg Short Film Festival, as did our exhibitions at the Sustainability Festival 2025:

• ‘Cultural Perspectives & Mindfulness’ by Jacqueline Dreischer
• ‘MYCELIUM – Rethinking the Circular Economy’ by Tobias Fleischmann in collaboration with students from the seminar Fungi Revolution - Creating a sustainable future with a mushroom lab in the classroom

Internationally, the year was also marked by exchange: we are delighted to welcome Dr Xiao Wu as a visiting scholar until the end of August 2026.

At the FDdB conference in Innsbruck, we presented City4Future and our wild bee monitoring from our wild bee project. Wild bee monitoring was also presented at Karlstad University in Sweden and at the German International School of Washington in the USA.

The Science Education team wishes you all a peaceful, relaxing and contemplative Advent season, a Merry Christmas and a good start to a healthy and prosperous 2026.

Thank you very much for your commitment!

The project was particularly praised for its high practical relevance, nationwide transferability and social impact. City4Future is used throughout Germany. The handbook is available as a free OER on the Wissensfabrik website, and experimental materials are also provided to schools free of charge through the education partner principle.

These collaborations demonstrate how education, science and business can work together to make effective contributions to climate education. 

The prize money was donated jointly to the “Kinderschutzbund Bamberg”.

Click here to watch the short film “City4Future – Develop your climate-friendly city of the future!”

From 13 to 15 November 2025, you can look forward to a varied programme with exciting activities for all age groups. Enjoy workshops, lectures and hands-on activities, as well as three inspiring exhibitions.

The detailed programme can be found here.

The Department of Science Education (Didaktik der Naturwissenschaften) at the University of Bamberg held a professional training workshop titled “Schulleiter-BNE-Projekte” on the afternoon of October 22, 2025. The event focused on competence-oriented teaching and brought together 28 principals from primary and secondary schools in the Dachau district. The program highlighted two exemplary sustainability-oriented teaching projects: “Close Encounters with Solitary Bees” and “City4Future”.

In the “Solitary-bee Project” session, the team from Didaktik der Naturwissenschaften used interactive presentations and a digital learning application to guide participants in exploring the ecological importance of wild bees, their nesting behavior, and their critical role in pollination. Developed by the University of Bamberg team, the project integrates a digital identification application with a visual nesting model, allowing students to directly observe the bee life cycle and develop ecological observation and inquiry-based learning skills.

The “City4Future” project is a collaborative interdisciplinary initiative focusing on climate change education. As Originating from the German educational support organization “Wissensfabrik”, the team introduced that the project currently includes five modular teaching units covering topics such as energy transformation, wind power utilization, carbon cycles, and sustainable urban design. Each module provides a comprehensive teaching plan and experimental materials designed to foster the development of new core competencies in science education.

Throughout the training, participating principals engaged enthusiastically in a variety of hands-on experiments and group activities with the help of the team. The event showcased the University of Bamberg’s innovative practices in science and sustainability education and offered valuable models for schools aiming to implement competence-oriented teaching.

Dr Wu has been an associate professor at Zhejiang International Studies University since 2014. Her main areas of expertise are physics and science education in primary and secondary schools. She studied physics at Shaanxi Normal University and East China Normal University and obtained her PhD in quantum and molecular photonics from the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan.

We look forward to working with her and to the interdisciplinary exchange!