The "FÄKT!" project helps

Creative & perky: How school makes research exciting

Science is exciting - you just have to know how to communicate it.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/Monkey Business )

Can you still remember your school days? The eternal squatting on wooden chairs, the monotonous rattling off of subject matter by teachers and the lack of variety? Admittedly, that has changed in the meantime. But as far as research topics are concerned, there is still more to do - for example with projects like "FÄKT!".

Do you already know Julia and Marie-Sophie, called "Miso"? Not yet? Then you've missed something. As presenters of the "FÄKT!" videos, the two students communicate a wide range of research topics in a fresh, cheeky and cheeky way - and not just for social media, but also for the school sector. 

"We want to make life easier for teachers and the like," says the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) project. "FÄKT!" is closely linked to the curriculum for secondary level 1.

And for each video there is "extensive accompanying material that is assigned to the areas of competence in the curriculum and can therefore be used for teaching without much effort".

Likeable, funny, exciting: Julia (left) and "Miso" bring local researchers in front of the curtain in the FÄKT! videos.

(Bild: Jöchl Martin)

In addition to the crisply prepared videos with Julia and "Miso", the accompanying material for schools includes quizzes, quiz games, word lists, "Daily Messages", group tasks that can be completed using different materials and methods, etc. to provide variety in the classroom.

This means that "FÄKT!" can not only be a learning aid, but can also be used to test what has been learned.

Puzzles and tasks are also exciting for older children
But most importantly, as it is not just teachers and schools that teach our children, the materials are also useful for parents and the like.

Although the presentation is suitable for children and young people, it also works for adults - apart from the fact that they can certainly learn a lot too.

"FÄKT!" in a nutshell

• Homepage: www.faekt.science
• YouTube:
  https://www.youtube.com/@faekt.science
• Instagram:
  https://www.instagram.com/faekt.science/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@faekt.science
• Edutube: http://www.edutube.at/#FÄKT

Or would you know, for example, that the mammoth calf "Lijuba" was trapped in an icy glacier for almost 42,000 years before it was found? Or that only ten percent of the more than 50,000 mite species known to date are actually harmful? Wow, you say? Exactly!