Intel ISEF Award Ceremony, Los Angeles
Within the framework of the Deutschlandwochen (literally “Germany Weeks,” a nationwide initiative for highlighting German’s language and culture) and in collaboration with Jugend forscht, a German youth science competition with more than 10,000 participants annually, the Goethe-Institut has created the project “We are the Future” (“Wir sind die Zukunft”) to showcase Germany’s leading position in the empirical sciences. Young people from the United States with strong interests in the natural sciences meet German participants from the Jugend forscht competition; common interests in science also lead to heightening interest in German and Germany.
In March and April 2011, four champions from Jugend forscht attended local and regional science fairs in the U.S., where they presented their own projects.
In order to give the young Americans the opportunity to get to know German research institutes (thereby promoting Germany and its language), the Goethe Award for Young Researchers was created: three high school students were selected at American science fairs in March, two more from the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2011 in Los Angeles.
This group will travel to Germany in September and visit the St. Michael high school in Bad Münstereifel, which has a strong reputation in the natural sciences and has already produced a number of Jugend forscht victors. Our American guests will also have the chance to experience scientific work in person by visiting a German research institute such as the Max Planck Institut für Radioastronomie or the electronic semiconductor laboratory at the RWTH Aachen University. And so that culture isn't neglected, sight-seeing visits to historical cities like Cologne and Aachen will round out the trip.
