On April 28, 2022, school students between 8th and 10th grade were invited to this year's nationwide Future Day (formerly Girls' and Boys' Day). Our faculty was also involved with two workshops, each led by the Chair of Continuum Mechanics and the Chair of Structural Mechanics. The aim of the Future Day is to give school students an insight into gender-atypical professions and courses of study, and to encourage them not to be guided by classic gender roles when choosing a course of study.

The Future Day started punctually at 9:30 a.m. with a welcoming speech by the student advisor for BI+UI Dr.-.Ing. Nina Nytus. In a lecture, the students were introduced to the study programs of Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering, as well as their vocation and fields of activity. At 10 a.m. the students were collected by the workshop leaders.

Our faculty offered these two workshops:

• "Steifigkeit und Festigkeit – Taugen Cola-Dosen als Konstruktionsmaterial?" (Chair Continuum Mechanics)
• "Baustatik – Wie werden Bauwerke berechnet?" (Chair of Structural Mechanics)

In the workshop "Steifigkeit und Festigkeit - Taugen Cola-Dosen als Konstruktionsmaterial?", led by Stefan Seifert, technical staff member of the Chair of Continuum Mechanics, a Coke can experiment was carried out. Both empty and full Coke cans with different heights and diameters were tested in a compression test. The behavior of the material was monitored. The aim of the workshop was to find out whether round lightweight materials are suitable as alternative building materials. The results of the experiment were jointly evaluated and discussed with the students.

Simultaneously, the workshop "Baustatik - Wie werden Bauwerke berechnet?" was held, led by Stefanie Schoen, a research assistant at the Chair of Structural Mechanics. In a lecture, the profession of structural engineers and various types of bridges were presented. Together with the school students, materials used for bridge construction were discussed and quizzed. Afterwards, the students had the opportunity to playfully construct their own digital bridges with the help of the program "Bridge Builder" and to test the stability of these bridges under load.