Die Sendung mit der Maus (The Show with the Mouse) is a popular German children’s television program. It uses a mix of animated segments, live-action features, and short educational documentaries to explain complex topics in a simple, engaging way. Each episode typically includes the famous “Maus-Spots”, short, funny cartoons featuring the Mouse character.
Everyone in Germany knows the show and loved it as a child, and many adults still watch it because the explanations are so clear and the topics so interesting. It’s a dream to appear on this show, but how does one get the chance?
Lena Daumann, a Professor at Heinrich-Heine University in Düsseldorf, and her Ph.D. student Sophie Gutenthaler-Tietze managed to do it. And with a topic you wouldn’t initially think could not be explained in a child-friendly, understandable, and exciting way: Rare earth element research.
I spoke with them, and their enthusiasm and obvious love for research and communication with children and other non-chemists immediately impressed me. We talked about their research and experiences filming for the popular German children’s program, as well as other outreach activities.
“When you’re motivated about something and love what you are doing, or at least for me that’s the case, I want to share it, and I always want to tell people how cool and amazing it is. Every outreach activity I do is a motivation boost for my own research, especially when you see that you can spread the joy that you have for science”, one of them said.
I learned how important the many people behind the scenes are, both in TV and other outreach programs, even if they are not immediately visible, and that there is a suitable role for everyone in science outreach, regardless of their personality or what they enjoy doing. And the two have plenty of creative ideas from which one can be wonderfully inspired.
“Kids are just so curious. I think it’s important to foster that interest so that they don’t lose it. We definitely need the next generation of scientists.”
Check out the interview in ChemistryViews: https://www.chemistryviews.org/bringing-rare-earth-research-to-childrens-tv/
