Abstract:

Since 2016, the expansion of renewable energies has been one of the 17 sustainability goals of the UN agenda 2030 [1]. An increasing number of educational concepts provide teaching material to learn about scientific contexts of energy transition, e.g. the construction of an organic photovoltaic cell as a hands-on experiment by Banerji [2], especially for upper grade students of high school chemistry teaching in order to provide knowledge and experimental skills. The aim of our research is the innovation and re-linking of learning content as democratic basic education [3] in the natural sciences in middle school teaching. For this purpose, new contents in the context of energy transition have been taken up as well as contents from the existing curricula are included and expanded.
Our teaching series takes up the problem here with a view to future‘s mobility. The narrative begins with the combustion of fossil fuels in the internal combustion engine and leads to mobility as sustainable as possible in the context of energy transition. To solve the problem, hydrogen as an alternative energy carrier is brought into focus, investigated experimentally and assessed.
A student experiment on water electrolysis in a Tic Tac can was specially developed for hydrogen production within the Lab@Home project [4]. Following Tausch et al. [5], the electrolysis cell is converted into a simplified low-cost fuel cell, thus building a bridge to mobility transition. The aim of the experiments is to enable students to understand complex research objects by using simple household objects, in order to offer better interconnectivity of knowledge and research.
The teaching concept was piloted in two DBR cycles. As a learning method and to provide the learning outcomes, parallel to the teaching series, the students created their own learning videos in groups, which were reviewed, improved and awarded according to categories at a film award party. Concept maps were used as pre- and post-tests for the evaluation in order to be able to establish correlations of improvement in interconnections of learning contents and to draw further conclusions on the concept, results and interest of the students. Extensive time commitment in creating the learning videos as well as creatively and dedicatedly presented knowledge and improvement in soft skills are first indications of a high level of student motivation and sustainable results with regard to the environmental topics as well as the improvement of the learners' basic scientific knowledge.

References:
[1] https://sdg-portal.de/en/ (accessed: September 2023)
[2] A. Banerji, Nachr. Chem. 2017, 65 (7-8) p. 807-809, https://doi.org/10.1002/nadc.20174064372
[3] V. Meggyes, A. Banerji, Nachr. Chemie 2023, 71(6), pp. 15-18, https://doi.org/10.1002/nadc.20234134091
[4] banerji-lab.com/labhome/ (accessed: September 2023)
[5] M. Tausch, C. Bohrmann, M. Seesing, PdN-ChiS, 51(6), 2002

Keywords:

energy transition, power-to-gas, green hydrogen, decarbonisation, learning videos, concept maps, evaluation tools.