Math Museum in Passau: New location with fun and knowledge for everyone!

Math Museum in Passau: New location with fun and knowledge for everyone!

The Mathematics Museum of the University of Passau will move into its new permanent rooms on July 29, 2025. This marks a significant step for the institution, which has existed since 2012 and is dedicated to a broad audience, especially school students, with a hands-on exhibition on mathematical topics. To mark the move, an open evening will take place in room 010, Dr.-Hans-Kapfinger-Straße 30, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Media representatives are asked to register in advance in order to be able to report on the event. Over 5,000 students have visited the museum in the past, which was previously active as a pop-up in the foyer of the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics and in the teaching workshop for over ten years.

In the Mathematics Museum, students play a central role by both developing and building the exhibits and acting as tutors. These students bring their enthusiasm for mathematics into their work with the young visitors. The museum's concept combines learning and teaching in an innovative way and is intended to promote students' mathematical skills.

Hands-On Mathematics: A teaching concept with a future

An important component of the Math Museum is the “Hands-On Mathematics” teaching concept, which was developed by students and includes tangible mathematical exhibits. These projects are created as part of seminars or theses, whereby students are motivated to present their results to an audience. The exhibits aim to convey mathematical facts in an exciting and understandable way.

The Passau Mathematics Museum offers a platform for the permanent presentation of these works, which creates both intrinsic motivation for the students and visibility of their developments. It allows student teachers to implement didactic methods independently and to combine both subject-specific and subject-didactic aspects.

The exhibition includes numerous puzzles, riddles and large devices that illustrate mathematical effects. The museum also offers online offerings such as web applets and films to enrich the exhibition experience. These initiatives help promote STEM education and connected learning.

A look outside the box: The Mathematicum

In a similar but larger context is the Mathematics Center, which offers around 200 experiments to experience mathematics in a playful way. It is aimed at all visitors and particularly supports school classes in finding a new approach to mathematical phenomena. Families can spend a stimulating day here and take part in numerous interactive stations.

The Mathematicum includes experiments that cover different areas of mathematics, such as geometric puzzles or the golden ratio. Especially for small children, there is the Mini Mathematics Center, which offers special stations for children aged 4 to 8 years to discover the basic topics of “numbers”, “shapes” and “patterns” in a playful way. Although these approaches differ from the goals of the Passau Mathematics Museum, they show that teaching mathematics can be done in a variety of ways.

The future of the Mathematics Museum in Passau seems promising, especially with the continued support of foundations and institutions, including the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the European Union. An important step is the evaluation of learning and the development of strategies for sustainable knowledge transfer, which makes the project even more attractive for many future visitors.