STE(A)M, sport, school and club work together to give pupils scientific and intercultural experiences

The D-OBLU, youth balloon of the German Free Ballooning Association (DFSV) takes off.

Students discovering the atmosphere in a balloon is nothing new: as early as 1806, a 15-year-old student accompanied his teacher, Prof. Jungius from Alsleben, on his second balloon flight. And in Bitterfeld, Rudolf Quack, a sixth-form student, took part in five balloon flights in 1926 to take measurements for his final year project for his school-leaving certificate. The DPJW school exchange balloon flight also has its own little history; it took place for the fourth time, and for the second time in Bitterfeld.

Today's activities with pupils are therefore a continuation of an old tradition. The activities include excursion days with the Delitzsch Ehrenberg-Gymnasium and the partnership in the German-Polish school exchange with the Berufliche Schule des Kreises Stormarn and the Zespół Szkół Chłodniczych i Elektronicznych in Gdynia.

Balloon rides are an ideal way to learn about the wind, its structure and its effects, which is why the school exchange in the STE(A)M support programme Experiment Exchange of the German-Polish Youth Office (GPYO) is also called ‘Mystery of the Wind’.

The balloon rides were only one part of the programme; workshops were another. But above all, the goal was intercultural exchange and contact between young people from different nations. This was also achieved through the joint organisation of life in the tent camp and, in particular, cooking.

For this purpose, the 30 students were divided into small groups of 6, half of whom came from Germany and half from Poland. Ballooning, workshops and everything else that people need to live were assigned to a small group, and the tasks were changed during the course of the week.

A small selection of our workshops in this exchange. As always, we were only able to offer a limited selection from our many possible workshops.

We not only conduct STEM workshops in our exchanges, but also prepare them in such a way that others can benefit from them for their own activities: Experiments

A little competition: Fill a sandbag with 10 kg of sand without using scales, just by estimating. Then weigh it to see who came closest.

Who can build the tallest tower that stays standing for at least a few seconds?

As the balloon moves with the wind, the position data recorded using GNSS satellite navigation can be used to determine the wind in relation to altitude and landscape.

Overview

Focus on flight route

The wind direction is always given as the direction from which the wind is coming. To get the wind direction from the direction of travel, you have to subtract 180°.

Example: Direction of travel 200° minus 180° results in a wind direction of 20°.

The work of the individual groups was presented.

Lectures on various topics complemented the programme.

The trips this week.

The German-Polish school exchange will take place in Poland in 2026, probably in Lower Silesia.

The next international youth exchange here in Bitterfeld-Wolfen will be a German-Czech exchange in July 2026.

You can find reports on previous exchanges here:

German-Polish school exchange Ballooning