‘I was able to further develop my personality’

As part of the ‘Sportistry’ project, teaching and learning formats are being developed for students from the fields of chemistry and sports science in order to offer student labs based on these. Teacher trainee Luisa Klappenberger and sports student Grischa Walzer report on the many ways in which they benefit from the interdisciplinary collaboration.

Which sugars and sugar substitutes are found in food? What effects do they have on our health? What chemical processes take place in the human body? For whom could the use of certain sugar substitutes be useful? And what does all this mean for athletes? These are precisely the kinds of questions that students on the Chemistry, Sport and Health teacher training programmes, as well as the Bachelor's degree programme in Sport Science and Health, are looking into. ‘Sportistry - Understanding nutrition and energy supply from an interdisciplinary perspective’ is the name of the project behind it, which is funded by the Klaus Tschira Foundation.

Learning from different areas of expertise

The focus is not only on expanding the students' expertise, pupils are also involved as part of a lab day: In the student laboratory ‘CLeVerLab’ - short for ‘Chemistry, Learning and Understanding Laboratory’ - one student from the chemistry department and one from the sports department each supervise a small group of around four sixth form students. Together they carry out a series of experiments, analyse the results and draw conclusions. The students contribute their different areas of expertise to all of this. The aim: the pupils learn - the students learn and teach.

Helping schoolchildren to think in a networked way

Luisa Klappenberger, who is in her fifth semester of a bachelor's degree in chemistry and sport, is also taking part. When asked about her choice of subjects, she says that she chose sport out of passion and chemistry thanks to her interest in the natural sciences. She is taking part in ‘Sportistry’ because it is a ‘great opportunity to gain teaching experience’. The 21-year-old is also a student assistant in chemistry didactics - so she was also involved in the development of the experiments beforehand: ‘As a student assistant, I'm involved in the organisation and implementation. I helped optimise one or two of the experimental set-ups so that the experiments can be carried out well.’ For example, she has worked on various detection reactions for sugar solutions. ‘I was also involved in preparing the accompanying worksheets.’ She always felt very well integrated into the chemistry didactics team - ‘it was all a lot of fun’.

During the school lab day in the ‘CLeVerLab’, working with the pupils and other students was very enriching: ‘I was able to answer questions and offer assistance with the experiments. And in general: ‘Helping the students to think in a networked way and observing how they develop their own skills was really exciting for me as a prospective teacher.’

And overall? What will she take with her for her future career? ‘I think I was able to develop my own personality, my personality as a teacher.’ In addition to the ability to supervise, this also includes the ability to plan. ‘Organisational skills are important later on in the teaching profession.’ The interdisciplinary thinking of the project also appealed to her: ‘I would like to pass on this kind of interdisciplinary approach to my pupils later on.’

‘Knowledge of chemistry is essential in the field of sports science’

Grischa Walzer, who is in his fourth semester of a Bachelor's degree in Sports Science and Health and is also an active footballer at FC Homburg, had a slightly different - but also very positive - experience. The 21-year-old reports that he can imagine a career in sports management later on. He took part in ‘Sportistry’ to expand his knowledge of nutrition. A topic, he says, that will play a role in his future career - no matter what direction it takes. What's more: ‘An important part of my degree programme is the natural sciences. And here you have a practical relevance for a better understanding.’ In general, knowledge of chemical processes in the body is essential for sports scientists - you should also be able to demonstrate knowledge of laboratory work: ‘The project has definitely refreshed my knowledge of laboratory work.’

‘I would have wished for an internship like this back in school’

And how did he benefit from working with the schoolchildren? ‘Working with new, unknown people is always enriching.’ He will certainly have the same later in his professional life, ‘perhaps customer contact with a wide variety of people’.

Incidentally, Grischa Walzer adds that the students were able to benefit in several ways. Because: ‘To be honest, I would have wished for an internship like this when I was a pupil. It's a great opportunity to exchange ideas with real students. As a pupil, you ask completely different questions here than you would if you were talking to the student advisory service.’ In addition to interdisciplinary knowledge about nutrition, the students also received information about campus life, lecturers and anything else they might want to know as future first-year students. Interdisciplinary collaboration, a win-win situation for everyone - and for several reasons.