Seventh grade built the Fehmarn tunnel in a few hours

It may take several years before the Fehmarn tunnel opens, but it can be done much faster.

At the People’s Meeting, 7th graders from Kongeskær School in Allinge built a Fehmarn tunnel on Thursday morning in just a few hours. Using pipe cleaners, paint, duct tape – and remote-controlled cars that drove through a couple of long, black tunnel tubes.

Testing educational material
The students tested the material Tunnel Talents, which Femern A/S has developed for the country’s 6th and 7th grades. The material was tested at a handful of schools in the spring and will be officially launched after the summer holidays. Just over 50 school classes have already signed up, and there is room for more.

– It’s pretty fun – and better than doing homework, said one of the students.

The idea of Tunnel Talents is to encourage more students to choose vocational education. This is necessary because the Fehmarn project requires 500 apprentice man-years, equivalent to about 1000 apprentices.

Too few choose vocational education
– But too few apply for vocational education, says Emilie Juel-Helwig, Director of Sustainability at Femern A/S.

Only about one in five students from 9th and 10th grades choose to start a vocational education.

Tunnel Talents includes, among other things, a role-playing game where students are divided into groups, each tasked with being a contractor, client, environmental organization, or municipality. There are also creative tasks like building a tunnel.

– Maybe it will get some of the students who don’t always shine to get more attention. And we know that it matters to the students that it’s not old educational materials, says Emilie Juel-Helwig.

Mega good and very concrete
And Bonnie Hedesmann, the class teacher for the 7th grades at Kongeskær School, praises the material:

– It’s mega good because it’s very concrete. There are a number of questions that are easy to approach, she praises.

But does it make the students want to work with tunnel construction when they grow up?

Engineer dad thinks it’s boring
– My dad works with it. He’s an engineer and thinks it’s boring, says Solveig Gjendal, and her classmate Alma Rasmussen also doubts.

– My dad is also an engineer, and it’s a lot of sitting at a computer. I couldn’t imagine doing that, she says.

The companies Autens, Serious Games Interactive, and Vendelbo Kommunikation developed Tunnel Talents after winning a tender.