On Saturday, December 4th, 2021, Dr. Sonja Klingert (University of Mannheim) gave a talk at the University of Mannheim in the context of the ‘Kinderuniversität’ (kids university), a research communication and education event aimed at children between 8 and 12 years old that is organized on a regular basis. The session was split into two components: one was a talk introducing the topics of climate change and energy communities in the context of energy islands, explaining the interdependence between technical solutions and community approaches. There was a vivid Q&A, with most of the kids welcoming behaviour change aimed at using bikes instead of cars, but nearly unanimously voting against a reduction of streaming or video gaming. Then the children were split up in several break-out rooms to play a game where they could build their own energy communities by dragging various different elements (e.g. participants, energy sources) onto the center of an online collaboration whiteboard. Especially the second half of the event was very well received by the young students.
https://www.uni-mannheim.de/studium/karriere-und-weiterbildung/kinder-uni/
