On 7 September 2020, the Society for The Dissemination of Nature Doctrine (SNU) will present two H.C. Ørsted Medals in bronze for outstanding dissemination of natural science in primary school to teacher Stefan Lemser Eychenne from The Danish-French School on Tagensvej in Copenhagen and teacher Claus Rintza from Bagsværd Boarding School and Gymnasium. With each medal comes a travel grant of DKK 25,000, sponsored by the company Haldor Topsøe, and a grant to the medal recipient's school of DKK 25,000 for the purposes of a science project
The event begins at 18:00 with a short lecture on "Ørsted and Beer" by Professor emeritus Helge Kragh, as the special Ørsted beer "Experimenta" will be served at the reception. The beer has notes of pepper and has been made in a collaboration between Husbryggeriet JACOBSEN, Carlsberg Laboratory, CarlsbergFondet and The Danish Academy of Sciences. At 18:15, the handout itself takes place with a subsequent reception. Tonight's main lecture "H.C Ørsted's 2000 new Danish words" by Professor Frans Gregersen, University of Copenhagen, takes place at 19:30. The changes in the program are due to the University of Copenhagen closing the premises at 21:00.
About the medal recipients, erland Andersen from the Danish Physics and Chemistry Teachers' Association says:
Teacher Stefan Lemser Eychenne from The Danish-French School is a young and enthusiastic teacher who manages to engage and motivate all students in the work on science.
Through an exciting and real-life education, he arouses the interest of students of all ages, from kindergarten to graduating classes, and both in boys and girls. Stefan has produced a simulation on radioactivity which he makes available via the Internet to all science teachers – and thus has helped the science teachers during the Corona shutdown.
During his relatively few years as a science teacher, Stefan has initiated many different initiatives such as participation in the Artis competition, where science and art are a higher entity. In 2016, the school won the 2016 Young ART-Scientists Prize. And with Stefan as the initiator, the school participated in 'Flying Hacker Lab' Italy' and won 'The Ultimate Arduino Challenge' in 2019. This meant that the school had to show its product at "Maker Faire Rome! Europe's largest innovation fair with 130,000 participants.
Once a week, Stefan does exciting natural activities for the school's kindergarten.
He has constructed home-built microscopes that students can collect themselves. The instruction for building the microscopes is posted on the Internet so everyone can use it. In addition, Stefan works with the students with 3D printing, programming and preparation of teaching materials on physics and low-power electronics.
In his spare time, Stefan is active in "Coding Pirates". The experience from this is what he takes with him to the school so that he can work with coding with the students. Many weekends are used at the school for workshops with the students. Here you separate toys to reassemble it and thereby learn about technology, technology and coding.
Teacher Claus Rintza from Bagsværd Boarding School and Gymnasium is an experienced teacher who develops a lifelong interest in science among his students by creating an innovative, inspiring and at the same time safe teaching situation. He piques students' curiosity, makes them cooperate and engage in "wild" experiments in a safe environment.
He does not always follow the more standardised tests/experiments, but devises new layouts in the practical science teaching.
Claus is a group chairman at the school and always ready to give professional assistance, advice and help with a smile and a friendly remark, and he initiates specially designed camps and camp schools like Science Talents in Sorø, as well as inspiring students to participate in both the Nordic Mathematics Competition and Young Researchers. He has also started a collaboration with business and external natural environments. West Combustion, Zoological Museum, Chemistry at KU and Epilepsy Hospital Filadelfia are therefore now a natural integral part of teaching.
He gets his students to cooperate, for example by solving pondering/monthly tasks where they have to think outside the box. If the piting is solved, the reward is cream balls for the whole class!
A few student quotes:
"Claus is always happy and positive and his joy in life is so contagious that it is impossible not to be happy in his hours."
"The best thing about having Claus is that he always knows when you need help and he can always help so you don't get stuck in a task (which isn't so much fun). It's also great to have a teacher who always smiles when he talks about the different topics.
Dorte Olesen from SNU says" We are very pleased to be able to continue our cooperation with haldor Topsøe to give two medals here in the 200th anniversary of H.C. Ørsted's discovery of electromagnetism, both to a young person and to a slightly more experienced teacher."
About the cooperation with Haldor Topsøe, Dorte Olesen goes on to say: " Haldor Topsøe has already for many years had close cooperation with primary school teachers and has given them and their students the opportunity to see and hear how science is used in real life. We support this to be made visible also through these medal awards".
Ole Stahl from Haldor Topsøe says of the new collaboration: "Haldor Topsøe is pleased to continue the cooperation with the Society for the Dissemination of Nature Doctrine, thereby putting even more focus on the important dissemination of science that lies in the teaching of the primary school."