At the beginning of November, one of the most important events of the MINT-EC network, the MINT-EC-School Principals' Conference, took place at the Technical University Dresden in cooperation with the Anderson-Nexö Gymnasium. The annual congress brings together the currently 325 certified schools to exchange ideas and for further education.

For the first time the GISW, one of only three schools outside of Germany within the network, was able to  contribute to the event by presenting our STEM / MINT concept.

Through lectures by educational specialists, workshops, market presentations and various other encounters the participants were informed and stimulated to exchange ideas about new school developments and current topics such as the digital classroom, further education for gifted and talented students and in particular, concepts to support younger students in the sciences.

Schools that had developed noteworthy ecological and environmental programs were awarded prizes as part of the MINT-EC School Competition  "School Creates the Future". For the first time this year seven students who chose a MINT related study area at the TU Dresden received a MINT EC scholarship.

The GISW was featured at the market of MINT-EC school concepts. Diligent in their preparatory work, the school's STEM / MINT team prepared an excellent presentation on our program. Besides our surprising banana piano (hint: the bananas have digital powers), visitors to our stand were particularly interested in the 4th grade science program, our partnership with "Kids boost Immunity" and the science “FuF” program. We had lively exchanges with educators from other MINT schools and new potential partnerships with scientific German institutions that we can implement in the near future.

We returned from an exciting event with many interesting new science ideas in our luggage for students and colleagues.

by Petra Palenzatis (Principal) and Steffi Colopy (STEM Coordinator)