Science Minister visited Children’s Summer University – University of Innsbruck
Together with Rector Tilmann Märk, Minister of Science Martin Polaschek visited the children’s summer university in Innsbruck on Wednesday. It is taking place for the 20th time this year and offers exciting and varied activities for children and young people during the summer holidays.
The children’s summer university was offered for the first time as a program at the Young University of Innsbruck 20 years ago. Since then, thousands of children and young people have used the offers on offer and gained their first insights into science. “Especially today it is important to get children and young people excited about research and science,” emphasized Science Minister Martin Polaschek during his visit to Innsbruck. “Offers such as the children’s summer university at the University of Innsbruck not only offer good childcare during the holiday season, in the exchange with the scientists the children also get to know a world that is new to them and feel the enthusiasm for research in all of us can awaken.” This is exactly what the workshop in the Innsbrucker is all about Art and architecture school education. Around 30 children, half of them from Czech refugee families, made plans, made discoveries and experienced adventures. “The children’s summer university offers a very diverse program every year and in this way inspires many children for science and the associated idea that we can also organize it for Ukrainian children this year,” said Rector Tilmann Märk. “Many of them will later have a correspondingly positive relationship to research and will also come to the university to study here and maybe even work in research themselves.”
The beginnings of the children’s summer university
The children’s summer university started at the University of Innsbruck in the summer of 2002 with a total of ten courses and has since developed into a popular program at the Young University of Innsbruck with over 100 workshops. At that time it was the first children’s university in the German-speaking area and since then the summer program has been carried out every year without interruption. Even during the Covid pandemic, the events took place with increased safety precautions in attendance. Seven years ago, the Tirol University of Education (pht) and KPH-Edith Stein joined as cooperation partners. This means that the children can still be offered a wide range of activities.