How do we spark young people’s interest in science, technology, and computer science? Perhaps with events such as the workshop “Rocket flight – from take-off to landing”, held at CASUS at the end of April: The girls and boys were evidently engaged and had fun. Like real scientists and engineers, they felt the pride of a successful project and the disappointment of a setback. And they experienced what is key to master a challenge: communication, teamwork and keep trying.

A dozen young enthusiasts — native speakers of German, Polish and English — started their school holiday week by cutting fabric and soda bottles. The aim was to construct a rocket lifting off thanks to the power of compressed air. That meant building a stable rocket body and a parachute big enough to safely land the falling rocket but small enough to keep the overall weight low.

The progress of the engineering part was easy to recognize. This was less the case with the programming part. But this task had to be done as well so that the parachute deployed at the right time: too early it would slow down the rocket rise, too late it would not safe the falling rocket.