Easy Language
The IPN
Welcome!
You are on the IPN’s web page.
The IPN belongs to a group. This group is called the Leibniz Association.
This is why our internet page’s address is www.leibniz-ipn.en.
On this page, you can read information in easy language about
- What is the IPN?
- What does the IPN do?
- Where is the IPN?
What is the IPN?
IPN is short for
Leibniz (1) Institute (2) for Science and Mathematics (3) Education (4).
The name contains difficult words.
We'll explain them to you now.
The numbers will help you find the words in the name.
Leibniz (1)
Leibniz is the name of a group. The IPN belongs to this group.
We also say “association” instead of “group”.
So the group is called the Leibniz Association.
Institute (2)
The IPN is an institute that does research.
That is why we also call it a research institute.
Doing research means finding out all about something.
Science and mathematics (3)
Science means finding out about things that happen in nature.
There are several sciences.
They include biology, chemistry, physics and computer science.
Biology studies animals, plants and people.
Chemistry is about substances. Substances are the things that everything is made of.
Physics studies how things move and how energy behaves.
Computer science is also a science.
It looks at how computers work.
Mathematics is also a science.
Education (4)
Education is about passing on knowledge to people - children, teenagers or adults.
Education also means learning, for example in school.
Knowledge is passed on to children, teenagers or adults.
Education also means learning, for example in school.
What does the IPN do?
There are a lot of people working at the IPN.
Many people at the IPN are scientists or researchers.
Scientists and researchers do science and research. This means they try to find out all about things.
They want to find out everything about how people learn science, mathematics, and computer science.
For example, they try to find out what a teacher has to do so that children find lessons interesting.
Or they look at the skills that adults and young people have in science, mathematics, and computer science.
People at the IPN work in projects.
This means that they work together to find out about a certain thing.
People at the IPN also write down what they have found out, and put it in books or journals.
This is called publishing.
It means that others can read what they have written, and learn about what they have found out.
People at the IPN also teach.
This means they explain things to other people.
These people learn at a university.
Another word for learning at a university is studying. So these people are also called students.
The people working at the IPN also hold competitions.
This means that they think up tasks about science and mathematics for children and teenagers to do.
Then they find out who did the tasks best.
The best child or teenager wins the competition.
Where is the IPN?
The IPN is in Germany.
It is in a city called Kiel.
Its address is Olshausenstrasse 62, 24118 Kiel.
The IPN is close to Kiel University.
The IPN often works with Kiel University.
The IPN has a branch office in Berlin.
This means that some people from the IPN work in Berlin.
