The Junior Academy as a guest at the Zoological Museum

27 February 2020

Photo: UHH/CeNak, Steinkröger

Daniel Bein shows the school group treasures from the museum's special education collection.

Pupils become environmental activists. The reason for this is the "Young Academy" workshop at the Clara Grunwald School in Neuallermöhe. Children in the third and fourth grades are given the opportunity to immerse themselves in very different professional worlds and, together with professionals, to get to know industries in more detail. This also includes public appearances and excursions to companies and institutions. CeNak and its director Matthias Glaubrecht are supporting the project this year.

For this reason, one of the workshop groups came to the Zoological Museum in mid-February to learn even more comprehensively about the biodiversity of the animal world. Daniel Bein, head of the Science Education Department, not only imparted specialist knowledge to the children during a lively tour, but also sparked enthusiasm. In the museum's special room, the junior activists discovered taxidermy, skins and hides, which they studied closely and were even allowed to touch.

Heide Mombächer, from Kulturwerft Hamburg, created the "Young Academy" workshop, together with the Clara Grunwald School, in 2018, which has always taken place once a week alongside school. The students are free to choose, for example, whether they want to be among the junior cooks, philosophers or even activists. This year, there are a total of ten different courses to choose from, offering very different insights into the professional world.

As ambassador of the project, Matthias Glaubrecht is enthusiastic about the approach: "The Junior Academy at the Clara-Grunwald School is exemplary in its concept! We are happy to support the idea of bringing children as young as elementary school age together with people from institutions and businesses in the city of Hamburg. By working together, they learn to take responsibility and to work creatively and purposefully in a team for a cause."

In the next step, the junior activists want to work out a concept in collaboration with Mirko Utermöhle, the managing director of the Orca Life communications agency, to find out what actions they can take to fight species extinction. Finally, the workshop will also raise money to benefit the Loki Schmidt Foundation's "Long Day of City Nature - Wild Bees, Alster and Elbe" project.

More Information

JA! Junior Akademie – Kulturwerft
Clara-Grunwald-Schule
Langer Tag der StadtNatur