Project Days for Schools: Experience Technology Firsthand

Today, technical and scientific disciplines influence nearly every aspect of our lives. Digitalization, automation, climate challenges, the energy transition, and the development of artificial intelligence are transforming the world around us and the nature of future professions. Yet young people’s interest in STEM is not a given. These fields are still associated with a number of stereotypes—such as the notion that they are intended only for select groups of students or that only people with exceptional talent can succeed in them. This makes it all the more important to show students that science and technology can be accessible, practical, and inspiring.

Author: Oto Janoušek

Technical universities, in particular, can play an important role in this regard. They allow high school students to experience science outside the classroom—to visit laboratories, meet researchers, and try out technologies they don’t normally encounter. That is why our faculty organizes customized open houses, popular science lectures, student competitions, and summer schools for high schools. The program also includes project days, during which students can participate in hands-on workshops and discover that technical fields have very concrete forms and impacts.

Author: Oto Janoušek

During the past school year, we welcomed several classes to the faculty as part of project days organized by partner schools. Among them were students from the Gymnázium Matyáše Lercha v Brně and the Gymnázium ve Znojmě. This was followed in May by visits from other schools—for example, classes from the Gymnázium Křenová v Brně, for whom the Department of Telecommunications and the Department of Biomedicial Engineering prepared a program. We also organized an expanded workshop program for the EKO gymnázium v Brně, and we dedicated a project day to classes from the science-focused high school at the Střední průmyslová škola chemická a Gymnázium v Brně.

Author: Oto Janoušek

The most valuable aspect of these events is the opportunity to show students that technology and science can be experienced in ways other than just through textbooks. Often, all it takes is one interesting experiment, a conversation with a teacher, or the chance to try working in a lab for students to imagine that this might be the path they could one day take. And it is in moments like these that we see that such activities truly make a difference.

Author: Oto Janoušek