From 14 to 18 February 2012 at the didacta education exhibition in Hannover the GDA will be presenting its teaching materials on the subject of aluminium. The GDA will be present at stand D38/1 in hall 15. There, they are presenting not only various teaching materials and information sheets, but also a two-part teaching DVD in three languages.

The DVD, Aluminium I, provides an easy introduction to the subject, and is an ideal helper for informative handling of the lightweight material. The DVD, Aluminium II, offers a clear description of the entire material cycle, from the extraction of aluminium oxide, through primary aluminium production, right to finishing, applications, and recycling.

The teaching resource “Aluminium Compact” consists of the practically-oriented teacher’s folders for schoolroom lessons, as well as the aluminium teaching kit which contains many teaching aids and sample objects of the material, aluminium. The additionally offered machining courses “Serviette holder Penguin”, “Cube” and “Television tower” each contain the materials necessary to begin milling, turning or sheet work directly in the classroom.

The teacher’s folders contain background information on aluminium, and projection foils and work aids in the form of student exercise sheets with solutions. The exercise sheets, containing information prepared especially to suit students, inform about the extraction of bauxite and the production of aluminium, and areas where the lightweight material is used, as well as its ecological properties. To make them suitable for use in vocational schools the worksheets have been revised and supplemented in collaboration with the vocational school, Berufsschule für Metalltechnik, in Bremen.

The aluminium kit, which is currently being re-issued, contains many showpieces and examples of use: The production process of the lightweight material is demonstrated by examples such as bauxite and aluminium hydroxide samples, and an aluminium ingot, as well as finished products such as an aluminium can, a tray or a section profile.

The Gesamtverband der Aluminiumindustrie e.V. (GDA), with offices in Düsseldorf, was founded in Dresden in 1992. It is an association of aluminium companies that produce raw aluminium or aluminium products, also in combination with other materials. As branch association it represents the interests of a strongly performing aluminium industry.