Information for Schools

Since 2005, the Max Planck Society has been offering the latest information, images and video clips on current and much-discussed research topics such as stem cells, climate change, black holes and fuel cells. The max-wissen portal is aimed particularly at all those who want to keep up to date or go deeper than conventional textbooks allow.

Every year, more than 100,000 students work with the MAX booklets for biology (BIOMAX), geography (GEOMAX), and chemistry, physics, and astronomy (TECHMAX). Free ordering is via a simple shopping cart system. The max-wissen portal, which can also be accessed on mobile devices - smartphones, tablets and PCs - also provides a quick overview of student labs, guided tours and citizen science projects at the Max Planck Institutes.

Variety of Teaching Materials

With max-media, the Max Planck Society offers an extensive collection of various forms of media for digital teaching that is constantly being expanded. Illustrations, images, photos, audio files, films, exercises and interactive tutorials can be searched for quickly and easily and downloaded easily. The convenient search function filters by subjects, topic areas, formats and keywords. Most of the media have a Creative Commons license, which facilitates their use in the classroom. Nice examples are the comparison of two heat summers or the docking sites of Sars-CoV-2.

Insights for Schools on Site

The Max Planck Institutes in Tübingen offer special activities for schools: School students visit an institute or conduct experiments in the school lab. Researchers come into the classroom and talk about their projects. There are documents such as brochures or online materials for schools, citizen science projects or guided tours. Nature observations are supported with contemporary mobile apps: Pupils explore, observe or determine animals and plants, log and share their findings with mobile technologies.

Cooperation with Schooling Media Partners 

The Institute for Film and Image in Science and Education (FWU) is a non-profit institution of the states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its tasks include the development and promotion of media education concepts for teaching as well as the production and distribution of audio-visual media, software and multimedia programs for school and out-of-school education. Together with scientists from the Max Planck Institutes at the Tübingen campus, the FWU is constantly implementing new educational projects. Recent examples include support for the creation of an interactive educational portal on the basics of genetics and an educational video on epigenetics.