Schülerlabor Informatik - InfoSphere, Informatik entdecken in Modulen für alle Schulformen & Klassenstufen
Workshops of the Project Personal Photonics

Workshops of the Project Personal Photonics

We'll continue offering Arduino-Photonic-Workshops (for the young and old) throughout Germany.

"Personal Photonics" is the name of a cooperation project between the InfoSphere and the Media Computing Group (Institute i10 at the RWTH Aachen). It was created by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the context of the supporting measure "Open Photonik" of the program "Photonik Forschung Deutschland". The goal of this project is to haptically perceive the environment and design it in 3D with light zu können. Besides professional and innovative solutions we want to enable you to participate in creating solutions and contraptions for those goals as well as testing your ideas.

To introduce you to the basics of building such devices you (no matter if you're young or old) will build circuits and program Arduino micro controllers during workshops. Afterwards you will have a much easier time coming up with creative ideas to to improve the world with light.

Upcoming events will be announced here!!

Events gone by (and which you hopefully didn't miss):

Events in 2019

  • March 17-19, 2019: Annual-Conference of LernortLabor (Paderborn)
  • March 13, 2019: Arduino-Workshop for teachers (Dresden)
  • February 18-20, 2019: Didacta (Cologne)
  • February 12, 2019: Arduino-Workshop with students of theGymnasium am Turmhof Mechernich at the InfoSphere (Aachen)
  • February 11, 2019: Arduino-Workshop with students of the Ritzefeld-Gymnasium Stolberg at the InfoSphere (Aachen)
  • February 6, 2019: Arduino-Workshop with students of the Friedrich-Spee-Gymnasium Geldern at the InfoSphere (Aachen)
  • January 8, 2019: Arduino-Workshop with students of the Realschule Korschenbroich at the InfoSphere (Aachen)

Events in 2018

  • December 18 & 20, 2018: Arduino-Workshop with students of the Berufskolleg Eschweiler at the InfoSphere (Aachen)
  • November 14, 2018: Arduino-Workshop with students of the Couven Gymnasium at the InfoSphere (Aachen)
  • November 9, 2018: RWTH Science Night (Aachen)
  • November 3, 2018: Night of museum (Stolberg)
  • October 30, 2018: Presentation "Informatische Bildung von der Grundschule bis zum Abitur  - Schule 4.0" (Darmstadt)
  • October 7, 2018: Learning Festival (Jülich)
  • September 19, 2018: Arduino-Workshops on fraMediale (Frankfurt)
  • September 15 &16, 2018: Arduino-Workshops on Maker Fair Hannover
  • September 15, 2018: Presentation on Maker Fair Hannover
  • March 3, 2018: Arduino-Workshop for interested students from Aachen at the InfoSphere (Aachen)
  • February 22, 2018: Arduino-Workshop with students of the Europaschule Langerwehe at the InfoSphere (Aachen)
  • January 17,  2018: 3D Printing Workshop with students of the Hugo-Junkers-Realschule at the InfoSphere (Aachen)

Events in 2017

  • December 16, 2017: Arduino-Workshop for interested students from Aachen at the InfoSphere (Aachen)
  • November 10, 2017: RWTH Science Night (Aachen)
  • October 3, 2017: "3D Printing" for students from year 8 on (in Aachen)
  • August 5, 2017: "3D Printing" for students from year 8 on  (in Aachen)
  • July 15-16, 2017: Maker Faire Lake Constance (in Friedrichshafen)
  • July 1, 2017: Paderborner Wissenschaftstage (Science Days in Paderborn)
  • May 25, 2017: "3D Printing" for students from year 8 on (in Aachen)
  • May 6-7, 2017: Maker Faire Munich
  • April 26-28, 2017: Tec2You at the Hanover Fair
  • April 27, 2017: Girls'Day - STEM-workshop on Arduinos (in Aachen)
  • April 18-20, 2017: Girls' workshop "Computer Science Desingerin" with Arduino Lilypads (in Aachen)
  • April 6-10, 2017: MNU Bundestagung (in Aachen)
  • March 25-26, 2017: Maker Faire Ruhr (Dortmund)
  • January 27-28, 2017: Book-project Calliope mini (Lemiers)
  • November 7, 2016: RWTH Science Night (Aachen)
  • November 5, 2016: Mini Maker Faire (Köln)
  • 29. Oktober 2016: Workshop for teachers at MNU-Landestagung (regional conference) in Rhineland-Palatinate (Emmelshausen)
  • October 14, 2016: Workshop for teachers on 5th “Informatiklehrertag BW” (Computer Science Teacher Day in Heidelberg)
  • October 7, 2016: Handover of InfoSphere-Kits to the FabLab (Nuremberg)
  • October 1, 2016: Maker Faire (Berlin)
  • September 30, 2016: ScienceNight Ruhr (Dortmund)
  • September 23-25, 2016: Aachen 2025 (Aachen)
  • June 26-27, 2016: Paderborner Wissenschaftstage (Science Days in Paderborn)
  • June 5, 2016: Open Day at the Forschungszentrum (Jülich)

For those of you who can't make it to one of our events here you can find our online learning opportunities 

"Arduino-Online-Course"

Reports on Past Events:

April 6-10, 2017: MNU-Bundestagung (in Aachen)

It was an exhausting but awesome event: the MNU-Bundeskongress at RWTH Aachen University. The MNU-Bundeskongress is an annual congress where exhibitors offer products, workshops, and information about education in mathematics and natural science. Almost 1200 teachers (teaching biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, physics or technology) came from all over Germany to visit the congress in Aachen. Some of them used the opportunity to participate in our Arduino-Workshop on Saturday morning.


March 25-26, 2017: Maker Faire Ruhr (Dortmund)

It was the second time the InfoSphere offered a hands-on stand and two workshops at the Maker Faire Ruhr in Dortmund. It was the second time the InfoSphere offered a hands-on stand and two workshops at the Maker Faire Ruhr in Dortmund. Thanks to Cubetto, Dash & Dot, ScratchJR and Lego Wedo even the youngest visitors gained first experiences in programming. For the older visitors, we prepared an Arduino challenge: They could build their own circuit and write a program to make a series of neopixels blink. Everyone who wanted to try out more could participate in one of our workshops to improve his/her skills. We were really pleased with all the interested visitors – both young and old. We are looking forward to next year’s Maker Faire!


January 27-28, 2017: Book-Project Calliope mini

"We are going to write a book about the Calliope mini!" This was the reason why some makers, artists, and computer scientists and we (Nadine and Thiemo) met in Lemiers. It all started on a Friday afternoon. Since everyone brought lots of project ideas for the Calliope mini, the next one and a half day we were busy to create a book out of these various suggestions. It is hard to believe that this could be working, but we endured and on Saturday our work took shape. Together we developed a guiding threat and set the table of contents and responsibilities. Since these days it is all about programming, testing, writing, taking pictures and proofreading. We have a lot of fun and look forward to the final result. It is already possible to pre-order our book.


November 7, 2016: RWTH Science Night (Aachen)

Once a year the RWTH Aachen University opens its doors for all interested parties at RWTH Science Night. Besides numerous physics experiments and fascinating speeches, InfoSphere offered a stand where both young and old marveled at Arduino projects teenagers had planned, built, and programmed in the InfoSphere. The visitors could even build a teeny Arduino project themselves. The sunflower and the speed measurement scored well, but our polar bear Lars who has an RGB LED in his nose was a true eye-catcher.


November 5, 2016: Mini Maker Faire (Cologne)

A very new venue arose at the Mini Maker Faire in Cologne as it took place in Cologne’s city library. Midst of bookshelves people of all age groups could discover the various facets of computer science at the InfoSphere stand. While elementary school students controlled the robot Cubetto over the playing field, older kids programmed the Arduino (for the first time with the graphical programming environment ArduBlock).

 


October 29, 2016: Workshops for Teachers at MNU-Landestagung (regional conference) in Rhineland-Palatinate (Emmelshausen)

As we did in Heidelberg two weeks before, we offered our Arduino training for teachers in Emmelshausen (near Coblenz) as well.


October 14, 2016: Workshop for Teachers on 5th “Informatiklehrertag BW” (Computer Science Teacher Day in Heidelberg)

At Heidelberg University, a group of motivated teachers who want to do our training "Introduction to Textual Programming by Arduino" is waiting for us. The teachers work at different schools, teach different grades, and slightly different subjects (e.g. natural science and technology or computer science), but all of them are interested in Arduinos and want to use them in their lessons. During the workshop, the participants learned basic Arduino skills. They built circuits and programmed them afterwards.


October 7, 2016: Handover of InfoSphere-Kits to the FabLab (Nuremberg)

It was a great honor for us that Stefan Müller, the parliamentary state secretary of the BMBF, handed the InfoSphere-Kits over. The ensuing workshop with kids and some parents in the FabLab Nuremberg was fascinating as well.

 

 


October 1, 2016: Maker Faire (Berlin)

An excursion to the Maker Faire in Berlin is always worthwhile. This time, we offered an Arduino workshop for all interested students (from grade 8 onwards). We were very pleased that many parents and even motivated teachers who want to bring our Arduino ideas in their classrooms participated in our workshop.


September 30, 2016 ScienceNight Ruhr (Dortmund)

On Friday, September 30th, 2016 we started our journey to Dortmund and took not less than two big suitcases full of computer science with us. Next to numerous makers, we built up our InfoSphere stand. Shortly before 4, the first visitors streamed into Dortmund’s U and weaved through the stands. Especially our young guests had a lot of fun to do our mini computer science rally. Everyone who mastered all 5 stages successfully got one of our 3D printed InfoDots in reward.

 


September 23-25, 2016: Aachen 2025 (Aachen)

For three days it was possible to take a look into the future. How life and learning will look like in the year 2025 was presented in Aachen. Of course, the InfoSphere participated as well, focusing on education. On Friday, there was an interactive exhibition showing the “Classroom of the Future” followed by workshops for both teens and adults on Saturday. As shown in the picture, the children could try out our multitouch table. In groups of 2-4 they tested collaborative educational games which students of the RWTH Aachen had programmed in a software project.