Prizes for Scientific Papers by School Students
With the Dr. Hans Riegel Awards, we recognize particularly outstanding pre-scientific papers submitted by students in upper secondary education. The prizes are awarded in cooperation with 15 German universities. Depending on the university, the students can submit papers in the natural sciences, computer sciences, and mathematics. We honor around 200 excellent achievements each year.
The competition for the Awards is a link between the schools and universities in the individual regions: The winners receive feedback from the universities' lecturers about their science paper, thus establishing first contacts with the university. They feel appreciated because of their independent research work. For this reason, the competition includes the possibility of submitting papers without the involvement of the school.
The professors in the fields of the natural sciences, computer sciences, and mathematics in turn get an overview of the students' level of knowledge and can promote their fields. The highlight is always the award ceremony at the individual universities, where foundation and university representatives hand over the prizes.
The recognition and support of these students involved in natural sciences, computer sciences, and mathematics also bring about a positive change in the perception their classmates have of these subjects. They get to see how diverse, interesting, and closely related to real life the school papers are and that effort pays off beyond school.
As part of the competition, teachers at some locations also receive welcome support through training on scientific papers. In addition, we provide student teachers in the natural science, computer science, and mathematics fields with the opportunity to support and assist the evaluation process.
The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg has published a guide on Writing a scientific paper on their Hamburg education server.
Identifying and formulating the subject are particularly important for scientific papers. This is an aspect our panel also evaluates very carefully. Werner Stangl of the University Linz provides guidance on the collection, structuring, and formulation of ideas as well as the creation of texts.
Unicum Abi sums up the most important instructions on the preparation of scientific papers at school in a concise and easy to read manner.