Lindenbaum school trainee wins "Young People in Research" award

It's not only our staff that likes to experiment with new methods and technologies as part of their daily work. At Lindenbaum, we also offer young people the chance to learn something new, for example, as part of school work experience.

Lukas chose to spend his autumn half term holiday with us. At school he had already reorganised the school library by developing a system based on MySQL and PHP: whenever a book is now borrowed from the library for the first time, it is added to the inventory using a scanner and Google Book API i.e. it is added "on-the-fly". This has allowed the so-called "carrot bib" to replace the file card box.  On 15th November 2009 an improved version of the school library management system, known as "fichte_bib" and which also manages the teachers' library, was presented at the Open Source Expo at Karlsruhe Conference Centre. The idea was to get pupils, teachers and parents interested in the system so that they would use it in their own schools as Open Source Software.

During his school work experience in February at Lindenbaum, Lukas once again used MySQL and PHP to develop a monitoring component which allows our technicians to easily see important system events on a small mobile telephone screen.

During this time, Lukas was also working on "carrotBot II". He presented this freely programmable robot control system, which uses standard microprocessors and sensors, at this year's "Young People in Research" competition and came first in the technology category of "School Pupils Experiment" in Baden-Württemberg! He qualified for this competition by previously winning the regional round. The North Black Forest Chamber of Commerce reported that the jury particularly praised him for his commitment and sound technical knowledge. His "carrotBib" project also won 2nd place in the regional competition in the Maths/IT category of "School Pupils Experiment". We would like to congratulate him on his triple success!

Lukas continues to gain work experience at Lindenbaum and is currently working on the Visualisation of Computer Networks. Incidentally, he always brings a carrot with him for break time which explains his choice of name for his projects. You can find more information on his website (www.carrotIndustries.net).

Help me to do it myself         

... is the basis of Maria Montessori's teaching. The Montessori circle of friends in Karlsruhe wants to make this educational principle better known, particularly to parents. The circle of friends has supported schools and pre-school childcare over the last 25 years by developing educational concepts and awarding permanent loans. Currently the Montessori circle of friends in Karlsruhe is providing educational input to the "Protestant Primary School, Karlsruhe - All-day School based on Montessori Educational Principles". As part of its commitment to family and education, Lindenbaum GmbH sponsored the celebration commemorating 25 years of the circle of friends.

"Education is important even for small children" emphasised the Karlsruhe mayor, Martin Lenz, in his opening speech at the 25 year celebration of the Karlsruhe Montessori circle of friends. It is our responsibility to create conditions in which school children and pre-school aged children have fun learning new things; what is missed at this stage is very difficult to catch up on later. Elements of the Montessori educational principles - for example, general self-defined learning in multi-aged classes - seem particularly successful in achieving this goal.

"Learning is fun" is an essential positive element in our daily lives. Lindenbaum GmbH wishes the Montessori circle of friends every success and will continue to give its support.