Tinkering until the luminaire burns: children's workshop at Nimbus

Why do LEDs need so little power? What are renewable forms of energy and how does solar power actually work?
At the "Hobby Inventors' Workshop" on Monday 15.4.2013, the kids received answers to their fascinating questions.
During a tour of the Nimbus development department - which is normally protected against prying eyes - the children and young people were able to experience at first hand how luminaires are developed, engineered and designed. On the company roof, they examined the solar installation (with which Nimbus "fills up" its company vehicle) and were given an explanation of how it works.

Then the children were in for a surprise. Together with the young people from the EEC - the Electronics Inventors Club housed in the Nimbus company building - they were given the opportunity of making their first small LED luminaire: this "solar luminaire" can be clamped onto a book and will shine for around 1.5 hours before it is recharged via a small plug-in solar panel.
All the Nimbus employees involved in the event really enjoyed hosting this wonderful afternoon. We had incredible fun leaving our daily business behind for a few hours and spending time discussing, making things, tinkering and experimenting with the children.

The reason behind this enjoyable event was the "Social Marketplace Stuttgart" project, run together with the "Big Brother Big Sister" youth organisation.
In this mentoring scheme, children and young people are accompanied and supported by adults.