Mainz

First day in Germany with the Transatlantic Outreach Program STEM Study Tour. Today we arrived in Mainz and had time to explore on our own. I am honored to be a part of this wonderful cohort and cannot wait to see what this adventure holds and how I can incorporate what I learn into my classroom.

Germany is a dream. We began the day with a tour of ZDF, a public broadcasting network where we discussed how we help students understand the importance of fact checking as well as learned about the character Mainzelmannchen who also appears on their traffic lights. We then had a wonderful city tour. The Mainz Cathedral was breathtaking. After our tour, we had a group dinner where I tried Wiener schnitzel. The night was filled with watching part of a Euro Cup match in the city followed by fireworks on the Rhine River. 

We began with a tour of Opelwek and learning about their apprenticeship program. In Germany, students attend preschool/kindergarten and elementary school (see pic). From there, they choose an educational path. The apprenticeship programs, partner with companies to help train future employees. (The process is truly remarkable.). After the tour we took a cruise on the Rhine River (I had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn’t a dream.) The last castle pictured is said to be Rapunzel’s castle.

Today we had the pleasure of visiting the Berufsbildende Schule 1 which is a technical school offering apprenticeships. We toured the school and saw many career paths as well as the orientation where future students can try-out professions such as beautician, mosaic designer, etc. our next stop was the Gutenberg Museum where we learned about the printing press, book binding, and saw the first Bible. We then made our own prints during a print making workshop. Afterwards we had a little free time and several of us visited St. Stephen’s Church which have Chagall’s blue stained glass windows, which were breathtaking. For dinner, we ate at an eritean restaurant. It was delicious!  Our day ended with a beautiful rainbow.