Team Freiburg

Katja is a researcher, educator and leader of international projects in mathematics and science education. She holds a master’s degree in mathematics and biology, acquired her PhD in mathematics education in 2004 and was awarded professorship in the same year. Her main professional interests are modelling and applications (solving open, realistic problems with the help of mathematics) and inquiry-based science teaching. Her research has been published widely in the most prestigious journals in the field. Next to teaching and research in these fields, her work is characterised by a strong practical and melioristic concern towards advancing science teaching. Katja has successfully coordinated numerous large-scale European projects to foster innovation in STEM education, including award-winning projects like PRIMAS, mascil or COMPASS. She has acted as the German representative in the EC’s working group on science and mathematics education with a particular focus on low achieving students and co-initiated the European STEM Professional Development Centre Network. Katja is also a highly experienced and renowned professional development course instructor of in-service teachers and facilitators in the German-speaking countries and her focus on transferring research into practice is also mirrored in publications directly addressing teachers. Her work is distinguished by both a local and international orientation and she relies on excellent networks to research, policy and practice. As the founding director of ICSE she aims to take European collaboration in STEM education to a next level so as to maximise quality, equality and innovation in day-to-day STEM teaching.

Laura Wanckel studied History of Art, History, Slavic Studies and Museum Management in Dresden and Hamburg and graduated from the University of Hamburg (M.A.). Before she came to the ICSE she completed a training in project management. Her professional experience includes working as a curator and in public relations at the Städtische Museen Freiburg. In addition to curatorial work, her focus was on exhibition organization and coordination as well as the organization of events. Laura also created marketing concepts and was responsible for the editing and production of the advertising material.

Laura joined the PHFR team in October 2018 and is the responsible project manager for the ICSE´s current ERASMUS+ project STEM PD Net.

Dr. Oliver Straser studied Mathematics with a minor in Physics in Essen and Heidelberg, Germany, and graduated from the University of Heidelberg (Diplom). He worked as a scientist at the University of Freiburg and received his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Soergel in Mathematics.  Since 2015 he has been working as a vocational school teacher.

In September 2018 he joined the ICSE Team.  He primarily contributes to the design and dissemination of IBL tasks and to our professional training programs for teachers and schools.

Elena Köck holds an Engineering Diploma Degree from the University of Applied Sciences Mannheim and worked as a production engineer in Berlin bevor moving to Freiburg in 2010. For 6 years she worked at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, mainly in the area of research, quality and sustainability management. Additionally to her engineering degree, she holds a Diploma from the University of Edinburgh in Outdoor Environmental and Sustainability Education. Of relevance to her current field of work is also that she was awarded a certificate of professional development in the area of European research funding and research management by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the University of Speyer. She also obtained a TÜV (German Association for Technical Inspection) quality management representative certificate.

From November on, Elena helps the ICSE Team with research proposals and third party funding.

Chrissi Fischer holds undergraduate degrees in History and Politics from the University of Manitoba in Canada. She graduated with a Master of Arts degree in Social Sciences (Global Studies Programme) from the University of Freiburg (Germany) and FLACSO Argentina. Chrissi has worked in political, educational and civil society contexts, focusing on the management of volunteers, event organization and project design and management.

For ICSE, Chrissi now works in public relations management. She develops new marketing strategies for ICSE and puts them into action, while taking care of the overall communication and public relations sector.

Katharina studied mathematics and physics for secondary education at the renowned KIT – Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and has, previously to commencing her appointment at ICSE in 2017, been teaching at the Goethe Gymnasium Emmendingen. She is a qualified teacher for the bilingual teaching of STEM subjects and has experience in fostering international dimensions in STEM classrooms by working with students on tasks that specifically carry international settings. Katharina is also experienced in bringing inquiry-based learning and interdisciplinary connections into her classroom and is specifically trained to enhance student learning by including longer-term student projects into regular class work. At ICSE, Katharina brings her expertise into our national and international STEM education projects and contributes specifically to the design and dissemination of IBL and interdisciplinary tasks and to our professional development programs for teachers and schools.

Sabine studied Applied Cultural Sciences at the University of Lüneburg. As a freelance cultural manager, Sabine has a wealth of experience at the intersection between culture and economics. For example, she designed and managed the ArtCard project for Deutsche Bank – Art, Culture & Sports. Prior to this, at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin, she organised events and educational trips for the friendship circle of the museum. Sabine’s professional experience includes marketing and communication skills, in particular in project management, the set-up of international networks, and editing brochures and newsletters. Furthermore, being an instructor at the Hector Kinderakademie, she runs interdisciplinary courses for primary school kids.

At ICSE, Sabine is the project manager for our project ENSITE.

Dita Betere holds a M.A. in the Educational Science, Field of Study: Adult and Continuing Education. Along the Master Studies she gained a University Certificate for expertise in empirical research methods.

Shortly before studies in Freiburg, Germany she was the National Coordinator of „The Duke of Edinburgh`s Award“ in the National Centre for Education and was responsible for finances, marketing, training the trainers and leaders of the programme, national and international events and projects.

At the International Centre for STEM Education (ICSE) she will be managing the project Girls4STEM (GEM).

Dr. Meta Kambach is a member of the International Center for STEM Education (ICSE) of the Freiburg University of Education since September 2019. She studied biology, textile design and music for teacher education at the European University Flensburg.

Since completing her second state exam, she was involved in the Humboldt ProMINT Kolleg (www.promint.hu-berlin.de) as part of a scholarship program. As part of her PhD project, she successfully worked together in an interdisciplinary team of teachers, professors and junior researchers of STEM education.

In her function as project manager of the Humboldt Bayer Mobil (www.humboldt-bayer-mobil.de), a mobile science laboratory at the HU Berlin, she was responsible for the development of competence-oriented teaching and learning concepts as well as the support and leadership for the employees. Her focus area is the conception of innovative, practice- and competence-oriented, interdisciplinary science education.

Her research interests are in the areas of scientific inquiry, nature of science and job-related teaching and learning in STEM education.

As part of her research as well as the conceptual work on teaching and learning concepts, she published numerous publications relevant to research and teaching.

One of her tasks at ICSE is the conception and evaluation of teaching and learning concepts for students and teachers with the aim of enabling them for a realistic, job-related education. She manages the project Work@STEM.