Concept, Goals & Values
What are the MINT-Impulse?
The MINT-Impulse initiative is part of the TUM Entdeckerinnen program to pormote girls in the subjects of mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology. Chairs at the Technical University of Munich develop mobile workshops in which a lot of practical work is carried out. Speakers from TUM bring these projects to our partner schools as one-day MINT intensive courses. Together, they tinker, construct and discuss with the schoolgirls (8th - 10th grade) for a whole day in small groups. The girls' confidence in their own STEM skills is awakened and strengthened. After the project day, we invite the girls to take part in follow-up activities (e.g. an excursion to the Zugspitze). The program is aimed at Realschulen and Gymnasien in rural areas and is designed to run for several years.
Aims of the program
The MINT-Impulse school projects enable schoolgirls from an entire year to tinker and experiment in small groups without any pressure to perform and to deal with a current MINT topic in a very practical way for an entire school day.
Parents often have to overcome certain hurdles to enable students to participate in extracurricular MINT activities, such as searching for activities, the logistics of getting there or paying fees. This may disadvantage femal students whose families find it difficult to overcome these hurdles. The MINT-Impulse projects are aimed at all girls in the entire year group. The participation is free of charge.
Trying things out and tinkering is particularly suitable for arousing interest and enthusiasm for a topic. Once the interest is there, the girls can pursue it further in our follow-up offers or other extracurriccular MINT offers in the region.
MINT-Impulse aims to support schoolgirls in discovering, testing and developing a new perspective on their own abilities in the fields of mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology. This can boost girls’ self-confidence in these skills and at the same time open up previously unknown future prospects for them.
During the MINT-Impulse school projects, schoolgirls have the opportunity to break down stereotypes in two ways:
- In their project, the students meet the female project leaders, young women who have chosen fields of study and professionts traditionally associated with men.
- The girls can try out areas that they themselves might not have come into contact with, for example due to conventional socialization or over-critical self-assessment, without any pressure to perform.