Student Laboratory

Since July 2015, the student laboratory at Hochschule Kempten has been welcoming school classes from grade 9 onwards. The focus lies on human sensory perception – how we experience our bodies and the world around us. Through vivid and often surprising experiments, students have the opportunity to explore these senses firsthand.
For a few hours, they take on the roles of scientists and engineers. Engaging experiments introduce them to modern discoveries from the fields of physics, physiology, and psychology in a playful and accessible way. In doing so, they also gain valuable insight into research and teaching at Hochschule Kempten.

The basic program centers around the senses of sight and hearing. Students learn how the eye creates images, how challenging it can be to draw a triangle while wearing reversing glasses, and why optical illusions can deceive our perception. They explore fascinating color effects by examining smartphone pixels under a microscope, mixing colors through additive light, and generating colored shadows.
By determining their personal hearing threshold curve, they become aware of the limits of their hearing. At another acoustic station, they analyze their voices by breaking them down into frequency ranges and exploring the spectrum of overtones.

As this project does not fall within the university’s regular budget and depends on the dedication of a committed professor, external financial support was necessary. The Frank Hirschvogel Foundation has supported the student laboratory for four years.
Supporting initiatives like the Schülerlabor – which create strong links between schools and universities – is a central aim of the foundation, helping to reduce regional disadvantages faced by its partner schools.