Siemens aims to harness young minds with Discovery Box

With warnings of a skills gap in the market looming, business and education interests are coming together to encourage students to study engineering, science and technology subjects.

Siemens is taking a different approach, aiming its sights at primary pupils and hoping to capture their attention with its Discovery Box.

"Tell me something and I'll forget it. Show it to me and I'll remember it. Let me do it and I'll retain it," goes the Confucian saying. It was this that Siemens had in mind when it first created the Discovery Box programme.

Part of the Siemens Generation21 programme, the box includes a number of simple experiments that use everything from crystals and baking powder to mini-lightbulbs and building circuits.

Siemens held two workshop sessions in Dublin this week, bringing children in to see science and technology at work for themselves. "We let them experiment in experiment in a guided way to help them develop an interest in science and technology," says Michael O'Connor of Siemens.

While some young people dismiss the idea of science and technology courses as boring, they fail to make the connection between science and the latest gadgets they own, such as iPods and mobile phones.

"We need to change our approach to teaching science and technology. It needs to be more fun," says O'Connor. "If not, we will run out of graduates and this will impact on our future economy."

The Siemens Discovery Box has already been introduced successfully in Germany, with more than 2,000 schools already receiving the materials, and another 1,000 set to get theirs in 2008.

In Ireland, Siemens is hoping to partner with science teachers around the State to bring the programme to schools.