GTL Germany 2025 Blog

I can't believe that GTL Germany is over. Part of me feels sad that the program has concluded, though I remind myself that I need to return to MIT and go back to taking classes and doing research. It was an unforgettable, fun, and rewarding experience. I not only learned a lot about science pedagogy, but also learned a lot about Germany. Another great part of GTL Germany for me was making friends with the other MIT students in my program and the people at the university. 

Project Overview 

For GTL Germany, I was assigned to teach chemistry and science lessons at St. Marien's Gymnasium, a Catholic school for girls in Regensburg, Bavaria. The project was a collaboration with the University of Regensburg's Chemistry Didactics Department, which consisted of two professors and two college students who intended to become chemistry teachers. There were 6 MIT students, including me, at Regensburg. Instead of host families, we lived in the dorms. The university collaboration and large group made our GTL Germany experience unique, as most GTL Germany assignments involve two students at one high school teaching classes alone. 

Teaching 

Unlike other GTL Germany assignments that are three weeks long from 1/6 to 1/24, ours started on Thursday 1/9 because of Epiphany and student holidays. We taught chemistry for 10th-grade students, and English for 10th-grade and 12th-grade. The chemistry topics included the following: surface tension, electronegativity, dipole molecules and interactions, solubility, water's properties, density, etc. For the English classes, we prepared lessons discussing science and technology. The lessons included artificial intelligence (real vs fake), space exploration, and gene editing. The English classes were more focused on discussions and debates on recent science topics instead of talking about the technical details. 

It was a delightful experience to teach the students. In the English classes, they were engaged in the debates about whether AI-generated art is real art, and also shared their thoughts on the ethics of space tourism. I was impressed by their fluency in English because students in the U.S. can learn Spanish or French ever since middle school, but do not acquire true proficiency by graduation. 

For the chemistry classes, I learned a lot about how to properly design lessons. Going over the lesson plans with the university professors was very helpful, as I got constructive feedback and had a deeper understanding of how to teach high school science effectively. My approach to teaching science this year was better compared to GTL Italy, as my partner and I used the think-pair-share method, and we went around to check on the students when they were doing the practice problems. One main takeaway I got from the teaching experience was teaching at a more reasonable pace and not pressuring myself to cover so many topics in a short timeframe. 

High School 

One thing I found interesting about the school was its bell schedule. Class started at 8:00, and ended at 12:50, which is insanely early. In the U.S., most high schools end between 3-4 p.m., depending on the start time (8-9 a.m.). The reason that students get out early is that they have six periods, and each period is 45 minutes long. There is no 5 or 10 minute passing period between classes except for the 20-minute midday break after third period. I don't really get why classes don't have a passing period, as it takes a few minutes for teachers or students to switch classrooms and settle down. 

Although lunch isn't served at school because students go back home to eat lunch, the school has a kiosk that sells breakfast and snack items. At the kiosk, I got to try Leberkäse (Bavarian meatloaf) with sweet mustard for the first time. 

What stood out about the high school was the murals in the hallways, as my high school did not allow murals. The murals added some color and vibrancy to the interior, which I liked. 

Travels 

Although I only had two weekends to travel to other places in Germany, I was happy I got to see the places I wanted to see. On the first weekend, my GTL friends and I went to Munich and saw the iconic sights. We did standard touristy things like eating a Bavarian meal at the famous beer hall. One of the highlights of Munich was visiting the Munich Residence, a palace for Bavarian dukes. I was amazed by the architecture and room decorations, especially the antiquarian. 

Marienplatz in Munich 

On the last week, we went to Nuremberg on Monday afternoon. The place was incredibly beautiful, and we spent a lot of time taking photos on top of the Imperial Castle because of its stunning panoramic view. The streets were quaint, and the river view was picturesque. 

View of Nuremberg from top of the Imperial Castle 

A local "travel" we did was exploring Regensburg by participating in the city tour and brewery tour. I learned a lot about Regensburg's history from the end of the Roman Empire to the present day. The view of the Danube River at Regensburg was scenic and pleasant, and so were the cobblestone streets near the bridge. Winter has its own charm, though I would love to visit Regensburg again during the summer. 

The Danube River 

Food and Drink 

Before coming to Germany, I realized that I had little to no exposure to German food growing up. The only time I ate at a German restaurant was in this historic German town in Australia as a kid. I remember little except for the large portion sizes. Overall, I liked the food in Germany. I got to eat pork shoulder, schnitzel, and white sausage. I am not much of a meat person, but they were well done. Besides meat, I really liked the bread in Germany. It wasn't until I ate the bread and pastries here that I realized how much better the baked goods in Germany are compared to the U.S. Also, they are cheaper, as each item was between €1-3. I am going to miss the baked goods in Germany. 

Pork shoulder and knödel at the beer hall

I also loved the sweets aisle in the supermarkets, despite the fact that I didn't really buy any chocolates for myself. After eating the German chocolate brands like Ritter Sport and Merci, I realized that the chocolate I ate in the U.S. is overly sweet and doesn't have enough cocoa. On the other hand, the German chocolates have a more balanced taste. I am still astounded by the countless number of chocolates on the aisles, from Milka to Toblerone to Kinder. 

In terms of alcohol, I got to sample beer at a local brewery in Regensburg, and got to learn about the differences between light and dark beers and noticed subtle differences in their tastes. Beer is a big part of Bavarian culture and daily life, so much so that the university cafeteria and dorm has a beer vending machine, something that I never imagined before coming here! In Germany, the drinking age for beer and wine is 16, while spirits is 18. Also, a standard beer drink is 500 mL, whereas in the U.S. it is 350 mL. Besides sampling beer, I got to enjoy some cocktails I had at restaurants and bars. 

The Negroni that became an inside joke

Culture 

One special aspect of GTL Germany is the cultural exchange. The questions that the German students and professors had about the U.S. made us laugh because they revealed problems in the U.S., like health insurance and gun safety. These discussions made me look at my country from an outsider's point of view. I can't think of any culture shock, though some small things stand out, like how Germany does a good job with recycling, something that the U.S. can really learn from. One other difference was that people in Germany don't really talk on buses or trains, or if they do, it is at a whisper level. On the other hand, I feel like people in the U.S. aren't aware of their volume, or don't really care if others hear their conversations.  

Now that I have thought about this question more, I guess the biggest culture shock was that a lot of stores on Sunday close, like supermarkets and pharmacies. Although one could argue that this makes life more inconvenient, one could counter that by saying that you can do all the shopping on Saturday so you can truly relax and do nothing on Sunday. 

Conclusion 

GTL Germany was one of the best experiences I had at MIT, and I say this without any exaggeration. I became close friends with the other MIT students within a couple of weeks, and I got to immerse myself in a different culture. GTL Germany has once again reminded me that there is so much to learn from other people around the world, and that I benefit a lot from global experiences. 

Zizz loves Deutschland

Hi everyone! I have now been in Germany for approximately one week and would like to update you all on this. If you have not been blogging lately, great shame upon your dynasty. You should do this, so I am less of a blog-hog.

Quick summary of the program I'm doing: I go around to different high schools/summer camp programs with four other people (Sasha, Yin, Michelle, & Jing) and teach supplementary class-modules.

I arrived in Frankfurt on June 17 in the morning on the same flight as Sasha. Yin flew in the day before, and we all met up around noon and then waited several hours for our train to the Netherlands (trip to visit Michelle's au pair). Once at the platform, a nice German man who overheard us talking told us our train had been cancelled, and that there was a train to Köln coming in two minutes, so we made a decision to take a train to Köln, which was in the right direction (we figured we could transfer later). Another nice german man looked up an alternate route for us on his phone, which we wrote on Sasha's hand (picture). Once we got to Köln, we saw our original train (which was not cancelled). across the platform, so we switched and everything was fantastic. On our last train (we made a few transfers), we met a sketchy Dutch boy. I say this because he bought alcohol at every stop the train made and smoked at every stop. Also because he asked the four of us where our boyfriends were and fondled my knee. I then glared at him and he said sorry, and fondled my knee some more. And then we got off the train.

We stayed in Rodin, the Netherlands, from Friday evening to Sunday morning with Michelle's au pair. On Saturday we went into Groningen, the nearest large city, and climbed up a tall church tower and also bought Dutch cookies called Stroopwafels and ate them. It's my current facebook profile picture. I would post it here but it's Michelle's picture.

On Sunday we returned to Germany, in Lübeck, the first city in our program. It's in northern Germany, is known for having 7 towers, has 3 Nobel prize winners (natives), and was a big trading city back in the day of ships and stuff. During this week we stayed with host families - my host family is awesome. They have an absolutely beautiful house with wonderful gardens (by which I mean, the garden has two cherry trees with different species of cherry grafted on to the same tree, and lots of berry bushes - wild strawberries are the bomb, by the way). They are also extremely friendly, and very cool. My host parents own a pub. My host brother plays drums and piano and wants to study medicine (which is a much more streamlined process here than in the USA). My host sister has a "Sport-Profil" and spent the last week in Austria on a school trip jumping off of cliffs, climbing mountains, jumping off of bridges, white-water rafting in storms, and other cool things like that. She might study law.

I really have a lot a lot a lot to say, but I will summarize the rest of the week:

Daytime: we split our time this week between two schools; one that my host student attends (OZD) and one about a half-hour away (OGT). Both are Gymnasiums (the college-prep track in the German education system). This week, I taught modules on Special Relativity, Gyroscopes, RLC circuits, and Physics of Flight (applications to course 16). I think all of it generally went well, although I did a lot of adjusting - language is a big obstacle, because students simply find it harder to ask questions in English (we teach in English). I think my favorite module this week was Special Relativity; it really went extraordinarily well, and the students were fantastic. A few came up to me after class to tell me that they felt that they really understood the ideas I was trying to convey if not the detailed math, which is exactly what I was going for. One girl said "I may not be able to recreate everything you just did, but I feel like I have a vision of how it works, so thank you so much." Best compliment ever. [Picture: we taught our hosts the awkward turtle.]

I spent most of my time at OZD with the Science-profile kids (picture), and so did the rest of us, so we got to know them decently well. They taught us a card game called "Schummeln" which in means "Cheating" but they translate it to mean "Screw over your neighbor" (they used a stronger word). I'm really going to miss these guys a lot; they were absolutely fantastic as students and super friendly (and also most of them are older than me).

Evenings: The schools planned some events for us. On Tuesday we had a BBQ at a teacher's house, and on Wednesday we went to Hamburg to go to DESY (the German accelerator thing; they don't actually have an operating particle accelerator anymore but they have an electron laser and a CMS control room). On Thursday we had a boat cruise around the city (the inner city is an island) and on Friday we went to Kiel, a town one hour away for a sailing festival. This was a ridiculous amount of fun and I got to eat good seafood (picture is me and Torben, Yin's host student, with fish sandwiches) and have fun with the team and it was great. We got back around 1AM after dancing for an hour to loud English music that all the Germans knew the words to (but we had never heard the songs before). Ah well.

Other quick notes:

• Germans think you can survive on bread and cheese/butter/margarine/sausage.
• the German terms for a lot of physics things are very different from the English ones. This was a source of confusion in some of my lessons.
  
• I learned quickly that I had been (unintentionally) assuming that the students' high school background = my high school background. False. I quickly adjusted to simplifying things from what I had initially planned. For example, most seniors do not have multivariable, and technically, high school physics is not = to AP.
• We have a knack for meeting very friendly (not necessarily sketchy but maybe borderline) strangers. And old man we met today was amazed at my German accent, spent a good 15 minutes explaining to me that this meant that I had started German before going through puberty, and kept grabbing my elbow. But he was old, so it was like... acceptable.
  
• I loved my first week and will miss this place. We leave for Salem tomorrow evening (a new school.)
  

That's all. Hope to see more blog posts from all y'all soon!

Laura in Germany

Yo. I am in Germany.

This is how I got here:

In case you can't tell, that's plane, airport, plane, train. Then there was another train, but it was uglier, so I didn't draw it. The train that I did draw was pretty cool. It went along a river which may have been the Rhine. Sometimes if you looked out the window there were castles. No big deal. I didn't take pictures of them because I didn't want the four bike-tripping Hamburgers (not hamburgers) I was sitting with to think I was THAT much of a tourist. But they were pretty cool, which is why I drew you a picture.

I arrived here after two nights of sleeping on airplanes. Because I couldn't get my key from the housemaster until the beginning of the next week (surprise!) I stayed with an American exchange student who was nice enough to put up with me for the weekend. Then on Tuesday morning I went and talked to the Hausmeister in German and got my key and moved into my very own room. I am living in a dorm and it smells like smoke and sometimes looks like it too, and I am not sure how to flush the toilet properly all the time. Fortunately, the smell of cigarettes reminds me of Europe and Costco, and I am getting better at the toilet thing, so I am quite happy with my situation. My room has a sink and a view of the park. Also, after an hour and a half-long wash cycle in the German washing machine, my socks have never been cleaner.

It's a pleasant half-hour stroll into the city, made pleasanter by a stop at the bakery for some breakfast bread, where I've been going every morning for German classes-- our real work hasn't started yet, so things are pretty chill. In the afternoons, sometimes we go on planned adventures.

I don't have any good pictures of the climbing forest. As you can't see, the climbing forest consists of obstacle courses suspended from trees, including lots of logssuspended from cables, ziplines, a sled, and other scary things. I did not fall once.

Last Thursday we went to the three country corner. I don't understand why this is a big deal, because Europe has lots of three country corners, but it was fun.

See? This was the best of three attempts at a heel-click photo. You can't see my feet, but it is safe for you t

o assume that my heels are six inches off the ground and clicking. As you can see, the three countries represented were Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany.

The three country corner happens to be a stone's throw away from the highest point in the Netherlands, 327.5 meters tall. I have climbed the tallest mountain in a whole country. Shh, don't hate.

We climbed a tower while we were there, because, as the reverend Mother said, "Climb every mountain, ford every stream, follow every rainbow till you find your dream," and she was right. We were greeted at the top by this dreamy view:

The red thing pointing towards Belgium is a telescope.

From the tower we could also see a rooftop upon which a multitude of obese cats were napping. I have included a picture of them, and also one of some friendly German cows we encountered, because cows and cats are kind of a thing for my posts.