News › Youth rese­arch 2023: Regio­nal win­ners have been selected

150 stu­dents win first places in the seven regio­nal com­pe­ti­ti­ons in Thu­rin­gia – STIFT invi­tes to regio­nal win­ner coa­ching on March 10, 2023 – state com­pe­ti­tion in Jena on March 31, 2023

The win­ners of the regio­nal com­pe­ti­ti­ons of »Jugend forscht«, Germany’s best-known com­pe­ti­tion for young rese­ar­chers, in Thu­rin­gia have been deter­mi­ned: The 150 stu­dents have qua­li­fied for the state finals, which will take place in Jena on March 31, 2023.

A total of 608 young rese­ar­chers with 274 pro­jects regis­tered for the com­pe­ti­tion in Thu­rin­gia in 2023. 316 stu­dents from 4th grade to 14 years of age com­pe­ted in the »Schü­ler expe­ri­men­tie­ren« cate­gory, and 292 15- to 21-year-olds in the »Jugend forscht« cate­gory. In the seven regio­nal com­pe­ti­ti­ons in Jena, Cen­tral, North-East, South-East, South-West and West Thu­rin­gia, they pre­sen­ted their work in the fields of work, bio­logy, che­mis­try, earth and space sci­en­ces, mathematics/computer sci­ence, phy­sics and tech­no­logy to a jury of edu­ca­tors, prac­ti­cal experts and sci­en­tists under this year’s motto »Make ideas big!

70 girls and 80 boys are now among the first-place win­ners with 71 pro­jects. Among them are Casey Engel­brecht (12) and Enes Culov (12) from Johann-Hein­rich Pes­ta­lozzi High School in Stadt­roda. They inves­ti­ga­ted which fac­tors, such as dif­fe­rent types of soil or dif­fe­rent loca­ti­ons, favor the growth of oak trees. Sophie Grütz­ma­cher (18) was able to deter­mine in her pro­ject work at the Goe­the­schule Ilmenau that 3D cell cul­tures could be an alter­na­tive to ani­mal expe­ri­ments. For this, the stu­dents recei­ved a place in the state finals.

Dr. Sven Gün­ther, Chair­man of the Foun­da­tion for Tech­no­logy, Inno­va­tion and Rese­arch Thu­rin­gia (STIFT), con­gra­tu­la­ted the young rese­ar­chers: »We are deligh­ted with the diver­sity and depth of the win­ning rese­arch pro­jects and look for­ward to wel­co­ming the win­ners tog­e­ther with Jen­op­tik AG as patrons at the Thu­rin­gian state finals in the Volks­haus in Jena.«

Before­hand, STIFT invi­tes all »Jugend forscht« state fina­lists to a one-day regio­nal win­ner coa­ching ses­sion: On March 10, 2023, it will offer them the oppor­tu­nity to opti­mize their pro­ject-rela­ted pos­ters, stands and pre­sen­ta­ti­ons with the sup­port of rese­arch men­tors in the stu­dent rese­arch cen­ters of the respec­tive regi­ons in order to prepare them in the best pos­si­ble way for the next round.

The win­ners of the state com­pe­ti­tion will qua­lify in the »Jugend forscht« cate­gory for the 58th natio­nal com­pe­ti­tion in Bre­men from May 18 to 21, 2023. Dr. Gün­ther expres­sed spe­cial thanks to the tea­chers who accom­pa­nied the pro­jects of the young rese­ar­chers: »They accom­pa­nied the stu­dents and encou­ra­ged them to keep at it, even in the event of set­backs. With their com­mit­ment, they make a signi­fi­cant con­tri­bu­tion to awa­ke­ning an inte­rest in mathe­ma­tics, infor­ma­tion tech­no­logy, natu­ral sci­en­ces and tech­no­logy (MINT) among child­ren in the Thu­rin­gian regi­ons at an early age, and to pro­mo­ting talents and main­tai­ning and deve­lo­ping them throug­hout the entire edu­ca­tio­nal path.«

The STIFT board was par­ti­cu­larly taken with the fact that the quota of girls in Thu­rin­gia was at a high level of almost 50% and even repre­sen­ted a top value on the natio­nal average. »The com­pe­ti­tion obviously moti­va­tes peo­ple to get enthu­si­a­stic about STEM sub­jects and forms a very good basis for sup­port­ing young peo­ple,« said Dr. Günther.

More infor­ma­tion about the com­pe­ti­tion is available at www.jugend-forscht.de and www.jungforscher-thueringen.de.

All important figu­res and data on the 58th round of the Jugend forscht com­pe­ti­tion can be found at www.jugend-forscht.de/wettbewerbe/regionallandeswettbewerbe/statistiken-2023.html.