Children’s Day of Industry ’23 with Rejlek

How do you make technology and science attractive and tangible for children? We were able to host a successful example of this at the Children’s Day of Industry ’23 on 28 June. To encourage the young talents’ curiosity and love of experimentation, they had the chance to try their hand at making a piece of real technology at the workshop. You can find out what it was all about and how skilled the children were in this article.

The KIDI Children’s Day gives insights into the industry

The Children’s Day of Industry aims to promote interest in professions in the STEM subjects (mathematics, information technology, natural sciences and technology) at a young age and took place for the tenth time. At the House of Industry in Vienna, pupils aged 5 to 14 were able to get a taste of the world of industry, learn about different job profiles in the sector and discover their own skills in workshops.

For children in particular, the natural sciences are often especially exciting, because their natural curiosity, enthusiasm and joy of experimentation are ideal basic prerequisites for this. If the joy and interest in these areas are encouraged early enough, this has a multitude of advantages – above all, it counteracts the inhibition threshold that often builds up in later years when it comes to choosing a career and areas such as mechatronics, computer science or natural sciences can often seem dry, complicated or intimidating.

 

The Rejlek Workshop: Playfully building an electric motor

So we were allowed to organise a Rejlek workshop at the House of Industry, where a school class from Vienna’s 19th district was to be given an understanding of our company and the industry in general, and the knowledge was to be illustrated by means of a practical project. The Rejlek team consisting of Michael Juratovac, Bernhard Novak, Titus Frank and Stefan Baumgartner had prepared an exciting programme.

An entertaining and descriptive presentation formed the introduction to the topic of the day and provided insights into our company and everyday working life at Rejlek Metal & Plastics. With many questions and playful incentives, the children were motivated to interact in order to make the theoretical part exciting as well. Afterwards, it was time for the practical part.

“How do I build an electric motor?” was the task. Materials and tools were distributed and the work steps explained one by one. It quickly became apparent that the children were on fire and eagerly threw themselves into the project to complete their own motor. The Rejlek team was always there to support them or answer their questions. Full of pride, the young technical talents were able to admire their finished engines afterwards, which they had made with their own hands.

But that was not the end. For the grand finale, three large packages full of sweet rewards appeared, for which the clever minds had to put their skills to the test once again to show the knowledge they had just learned. After a shown video informatively repeated the most important points in building an electric motor, the children could prove how well they now know about the function and manufacture of such a motor by means of a Kahoot quiz. The three young professionals who were able to answer the questions the fastest then received their sweet prize while jumping for joy. After this exciting finish, it was finally time to say goodbye.

 

Conclusion: Applied industrial knowledge for the youngest ones

This workshop impressively demonstrated how much fun and enthusiasm children can have for topics related to industry & technology. With a playful approach, a large practical component and the right incentives, interest and commitment were maintained until the end, and the final quiz ensured that the knowledge acquired was consolidated once again.

We will remember this year’s Children’s Day of Industry for a long time and of course we hope that the children were also able to take away a lot and associate industrial topics and the industry with positive experiences from now on.