Pictures of the Future    Fall 2006

Tomorrow’s Researchers

Siemens’ Generation21 global training program promotes up-and-coming talent in the natural sciences and technical fields—starting right from kindergarten and continuing through the university years. Providing young people with knowledge and skills is a form of social responsibility that also helps ensure a bright future for the company.

It’s a beautiful summer day in July at the Bad Nenndorf Gymnasium (middle school-high school), and the mood is upbeat as vacation time approaches. Teachers and students from upper classes have organized a science experiment for the fifth- and sixth-graders. The topic is water. "Ooh, that’s disgusting," the 12-year-old boys yell as they mix water, corn starch and borate to create a green slime. The girls, meanwhile, are standing in front of a bucket of water, a pile of plastic pipes and a small paddle wheel. With a little work, they succeed in putting together what amounts to a rough version of a hydroelectric power plant. When it’s all over, the kids have learned a lot—for example, how a sand filter can clean dirty water, how much power is contained in steam, and why soap produces fewer suds in calciferous water than in distilled water.

Eighty schools in Germany, including Bad Nenndorf Gymnasium, were encouraged by Siemens to stage a "water project day" this year, for which the company provided 500 euros plus collections of media tools. Siemens is one of the most prominent members of MINT-EC, an association that promotes centers of excellence in mathematics and natural sciences at schools. The association’s objective is to provide member schools with ideas that will inspire young students to become interested in the natural sciences, and then keep their interest alive until they graduate from high school.

Bad Nenndorf Gymnasium is one of the member schools. This means that, unlike other schools, it regularly offers advanced placement courses in physics, sometimes even two of them per grade, according to the school’s principal, Dr. Irmtraud Gratza-Lüthen. The important thing to remember here is that, "teachers no longer conduct the experiments—the students now do almost everything themselves," says Gratza-Lüthen.

Siemens has a long tradition of sparking an interest in science among young people. The company launched its first partnerships with schools back at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, the company’s education program, known as Generation21 since 2005, encompasses activities around the world that start as early as pre-school and continue all the way through the college level. "As a knowledge-based company, we have a tremendous need for highly trained and well-educated people, especially in the natural sciences," explains Siemens CEO Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld. "That’s why we consider education and training a major element of social responsibility." Maria Schumm-Tschauder, coordinator of school and pre-school projects at Siemens Corporate Communications (CC), explains why the scope of Generation21 is so broad: "We want to support the top talents of the 21st century, so we begin as early as possible."

Starting Early Pays Off. Some of tomorrow’s researchers and engineers might be named Emilia, Nikito, or Luce. At the Kinderfreunde e.V. kindergarten in Munich, these four-year-olds are already becoming acquainted with the exciting phenomena that arise from electricity, sound and water. Today they’re learning about colors. "Does brown have any other colors in it?" asks kindergarten teacher Stefanie Wellenhofer. Emilia takes a brown magic marker and draws loops on a piece of filter paper. With Stephanie’s help, she rolls up another piece of paper and sticks it through a hole in the middle of her creation. She then puts this "flower" in a glass filled with water. The children gather around to see what will happen. "The color’s disappearing," Luce cries. When the water reaches the brown loops, yellow, red and other stripes suddenly form. Stephanie begins to explain the underlying principle of primary and combination colors to the children, but they’ve already begun looking through the wooden box for other markers to conduct more tests.

Siemens has distributed 500 of these "research" kits to kindergartens around Germany since the beginning of this year, while providing training for two teachers at each kindergarten. The kits contain all kinds of accessories for experiments, from balloons to light bulbs. The company has a very good reason for promoting scientific education as early as kindergarten. "Kindergarten kids are very curious by nature, and they love discovering new things," says Dr. Barbara Filtzinger, head of Siemens’ Corporate Citizenship department. "That’s why we’re already working on adopting this successful concept at the international level."

Scientific studies, such as the one conducted by renowned learning researcher Karen Lind of the University of Louisville in Kentucky, confirm that children between the ages of three and five are old enough to examine scientific phenomena—if it’s done in a playful way. Interest then wanes after puberty sets in. Siemens is also working with 39 other German companies on a project that’s being conducted within the framework of what’s called the "Knowledge Factory." "The project is designed to keep kids interested in the natural sciences and develop their interest even further," Werner Busch of Siemens CC explains.

Partnerships Around the World. Siemens is not only supporting higher education through its involvement in MINT-EC; it also runs a partner school program that includes about 155 schools in Germany, some of which even bear the name of company founder Werner von Siemens. The program is centrally managed by headquarters in Munich, but Siemens employees at the regional level organize and conduct the projects, in cooperation with school officials. Activities include project days at the schools, factory tours, job-application workshops, teacher training, and student internships at Siemens plants. And the program isn’t limited to Germany—partnerships have also been established with schools in Brazil, the Netherlands, the UK, Greece, Austria, and Denmark, with more countries to follow. In the U.S., Siemens employees regularly stage a Siemens Science Day at schools, with the aim of stimulating young people’s interest in math and science. The company also supports schools in China, Thailand, Chile, the Philippines and Turkey.

Siemens helps teachers at its partner schools prepare science lessons by providing media collections free of charge. The collections include CD ROMs for "The Water Project for Humanity," "The Ear, Hearing and Hearing Impairment," and "Einstein—Physicist of Light," as well as work sheets, interactive tests, and animations. Some 18,000 of the collections are already in use. And Siemens employees are especially proud of having received the Erasmus Euro-Media Medal for their "Water Project for Humanity" collection in June 2006. The European Society for Education and Communication presents the award to honor euro-cultural educational media packages with exceptional pedagogical value, content and design.

Motivation Through Competition. Since 1996, some 220,000 students from 37 countries, supported by 23,000 teachers, have participated in the Join Multimedia competition sponsored by Siemens. The competition gets students actively involved with new media and its various application areas in schools. The winners of the tenth—and final—competition came from every corner of Europe: from Croatia, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, the Czech Republic, and Belarus.

Siemens is now planning to launch a new competition that will focus more strongly on identifying and promoting students with particular talent in the natural sciences and technology. Modeled on the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, which has been a great success since it was founded in the U.S. in 1999, the new competition is to be held in Germany, Russia and China beginning in the fall of 2006. Entries will be judged by university researchers, and winners will be awarded scholarships. "It’s all about identifying talented people early on, supporting them, and establishing contact between high school students and universities," explains Christa Mühlbauer of Siemens CC.

Other events, including the Siemens Science Experience Program in Australia, are designed to foster interest in the study of the natural sciences among high school students. Last year, a total of 40,000 Australian students took advantage of the opportunity offered by the program to spend three days learning in lecture halls and laboratories. Siemens also operates a Technical Adventure Camp and Siemens Science Camp in Germany. These camps are particularly geared toward girls, with the objective of encouraging talented female high school students to pursue technical or scientific degrees.

Knowledge Transfer. Women are heavily under-represented among students of technical subjects at universities, particularly in Germany. For example, only six percent of the country’s electrical engineering graduates are women. "We want to use mentoring to encourage female students to complete their degrees and take advantage of career opportunities in technical fields," says Susanne Kiefer, an engineer at Siemens Corporate Personnel Germany, who is responsible for many university support projects. Every year since 2002, Siemens has therefore offered about 100 female engineering and science students the opportunity to take part in the YOLANTE (Young Ladies’ Network of Technology) mentoring program. Participants are advised and supported by experienced Siemens employees.

For example, Dr. Eva-Maria Korbmacher, commercial director of the Corporate Chief Information Office at Siemens, has been helping mathematics student Alana Kirchner for two years. "Part of my job is to get Alana better acquainted with typically male professions," says Korbmacher. "We discuss opportunities and obstacles in a professional world that’s still dominated by men." "It’s very helpful for me to have contact with the corporate world at this early stage, and to get an idea of what I might be able to do later on," says Alana.

Others who make contact with Siemens relatively early are the recipients of the scholarships the company has been offering since 1997 as part of the Siemens Masters Program. The program is open to students from Asia and Central and Eastern Europe who have completed a bachelor’s degree in a technical subject with top grades. The scholarships can be used for an international master’s degree at one of 11 German universities. "Universities and industry are worlds apart," says Dr. Frank Stefan Becker of Siemens CC. "That’s why it’s important for students to learn about the corporate world early—by means of internships, for example."

The company honors outstanding master’s theses with the Werner von Siemens Excellence Award, and it provides scholarships to many graduates who go on to obtain doctorates. For the first time, Siemens also paid special tribute to 14 talented students and young scientists from Germany, Russia, China, the U.S., and India this year by inviting them to Lindau for a meeting of Nobel Prize-winners.

The company doesn’t necessarily see all of these support programs, which cost tens of millions of euros per year worldwide, as recruiting measures. "We’re also perfectly happy if these talented young people later turn out to be our customers, or end up in positions of responsibility," explains Maria Schumm-Tschauder. "The important thing is that they remember Siemens as a pleasant, appealing and socially responsible company."
                                                                                                                        Ute Kehse