To Pluto in one day - Secondary school students present their research at UM
“You only notice the difference between university students and pupils when they ask about their homework,” says UM lecturer Otti D'Huys. “I had to explain that we do not give homework at university. Instead, we guide students and support their studies.”
This school year, the first group of pupils from SintermeertenCollege in Heerlen, Eijkhagen College in Landgraaf, and Porta Mosana in Maastricht got the chance to work on their final-year research project (profielwerkstuk) with a researcher from the Faculty of Science and Engineering. D'Huys, a lecturer at the Department of Advanced Computing Sciences (DACS), was one of their supervisors. “The supervision, often online, went surprisingly well,” she says.
On 20 February, the pupils presented their profielwerkstuk during a poster session in Maastricht. Niels and Yannick from SintermeertenCollege focused on simulating space travel in the solar system. “It was amazing to see our work come to life on our laptop, with planets orbiting the Sun.” They managed to simulate the exact trajectory of a spacecraft from Earth to Pluto. Their journey took just one day instead of ten years. A more realistic calculation would have required too much computing power.
Inspiring
The initiative for this profielwerkstuk supervision came from DACS lecturer Martijn Boussé. “Teachers at the schools and we at the university are very excited about the success of this project,” he says. “Next year, we will expand the range of topics and organise another poster session at our faculty.”
The research inspires pupils, as shown by the presentation from Haya and Danya from Eijkhagen College. They chose sickle cell disease as their topic. Danya explored the causes and treatment of the disease, while Haya developed an app to remind patients to take their medication. “We love combining biology and technology,” says Danya, who will study biomedical sciences in Maastricht. Haya has chosen medicine.
Encouraging pupils to choose a follow-up programme in the fields of science, nature or technology is exactly what this collaboration between Maastricht University and secondary schools is about. The university hosts Bètasteunpunt Limburg, a network that helps bridge the gap between secondary and higher education. Teachers can find resources there, and so can pupils—for example, guidance on their profielwerkstuk.
And the winner is...
The winning poster profielwerktstuk posterfair 2025: Veganisme by Kay Habets and Mila Bosch from the Eijkhagen College
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