The non-profit private foundation Kaiserschild and Ars Electronica have set themselves the task of getting children excited about technology and making them competent in dealing with future technologies. The vehicle for this is the two-story “missimo” truck with 100 square meters of exhibition space, finely equipped with interactive stations on the topics of robotics, sensor technology, bionics, coding and artificial intelligence. From September he will be going to elementary schools across the country.
During the Ars Electronica Festival, the interactively designed truck – 16.5 meters long, 6.5 meters high and weighing 22 tons – can still be explored on Linz’s main square, where it was presented at a press conference on Tuesday. At six stations, children can program bots and explore a robowall, for example, under the guidance of digital trainers from Ars Electronica. First experiences in programming and with artificial intelligence are combined with creativity. “With missimo, we want to inspire schoolchildren in a playful environment for the MINT world of tomorrow and for future technologies,” explained the CEO of the Kaiserschild Foundation, Marco Alfter Reasons for the project “missimo: Your Mission Tomorrow”. It is aimed at schools in rural areas, because museum spaces and digital educational programs are often difficult to access there. The mobile education project for the 3rd and 4th grades of elementary school will start in Upper Austria in September, after which it will make stops in other federal states. Hundreds of elementary schools across Austria have already registered. “missimo” will be technically implemented and accompanied by experts from Ars Electronica Linz. “Making future technologies tangible and comprehensible is one of Ars Electronica’s core competencies, for which we live and burn,” says artistic director Gerfried Stocker, seeing this enthusiasm realized in the project become. Participation is free for students. The project is scheduled to run for at least five years, with an option to extend it. All participating children receive a workshop kit that they can use in class or at home. At the same time, “missimo” includes an extensive range of further training courses for primary school teachers. In the specially developed three-stage training courses, all teachers can acquire new skills, and the entire training program is recognized as official further training. “A permanent smile on your face” We have been working on “missimo: Your Mission Tomorrow” since 2019 and have been piloting it in primary schools since April tested. “The children always had a smile on their faces at the individual stations and they all went home with a sense of achievement. For us, this was a highlight of the past school year. I can only recommend all schools to take advantage of this offer as part of their basic digital education,” reports Christine Haselsteiner, director of the Klaffer am Hochficht elementary school, about her experiences. After his death in 2013, educational and art projects for young people were realized in his spirit.
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