It all started with a box full of old cables and leftover plug connectors. If Linus Musekamp, then an elementary school student, had not received this unusual gift from an engineer friend of his parents, who knows what his greatest talent would be today. Now 17 years old, Linus has earned top grades in mathematics, physics and computer science, won the VDE INVENT a CHIP microchip competition in 2023, and already attended conferences and symposiums on microelectronics. “When I was about eight years old, I made blinker circuits and simple anti-theft devices,” says Linus. He bought the missing parts from an electronics store with his pocket money. This was followed by attending the “Wissenswerkstatt” (knowledge workshop) in Saarbrücken and joining a robotics club at school. His aspirations grew, as did the desire to put his own ideas into practice. With each new project, Linus gained new technical skills and knowledge. His fascination for technical tasks and scientific phenomena has always been a constant. “If a schoolteacher simply lectures to you, it’s no fun at all. That’s not the way to get people excited.” Linus thinks it’s important to give children the opportunity to get to grips with technical phenomena at an early age – in a playful but challenging way. “That makes it easier to opt for a technical career later on,” says Linus.
Education: Fun, games & electrical engineering
Linus Musekamp (aged 17) is a member of the editorial advisory board for this edition and came up with the idea for this article. He hopes that his tips will help children to enjoy electrical engineering.
| Sarah Kastner / VDEHe’s not the only one to hold this view. Experts like Angelika Dinges from “Stiftung Kinder forschen” (the Little Scientists Foundation) know that STEM education can’t begin early enough: “The earlier you start, the easier it is to encourage children to ask questions, experiment and continue on that path.” The aim is for young people to learn to discover things for themselves or through working with others. “Such self-efficacy really strengthens a child,” says Dinges in the MINT-Blowing podcast. And habits forged at a young age also tend to endure through school, university and work. As Dinges explains in the podcast, it’s not about “pumping knowledge into children’s heads,” but about strengthening the relevant skills.
Despite the awareness of how important this type of education is for the individual and society as a whole, it is still nowhere near as common as introducing children to the arts or various sports, for example. Young children are given instruments and attend music courses. Throwing, climbing, kicking balls and jumping are practiced from an early age, in daycare centers and schools or on playgrounds and in sports clubs. Meanwhile, technical skills, and especially electrical engineering, are often neglected. In terms of popularity, they have long been in the shadows of mathematics and computer science.
Nevertheless, offers are out there: electrical engineering and information technology are promoted at technology days in schools, as extracurricular activities, in school laboratories or through competitions such as VDE’s INVENT a CHIP. There are also plenty of fun, challenging activities with technology at home, as our electrical engineering gadget and gift ideas show.
Offers such as the Wissenswerkstatt, which Linus attended in Saarbrücken, are available in many cities in Germany under various names. A detailed list sorted by location or specialist area can be found at
https://www.schuelerlabor-atlas.de (in German)
