Building water mountains and exploring cell structure
Ellen (right) was one of the children from the Elisabethstift who learned more about the laws of nature relating to the elements water and air in a playful way in the Life Science Learning Lab.
Ellen knows exactly what to do: She grabs a cup, wets the rim and fills the cup with more water. Then she gently presses a postcard onto the cup, turns it upside down—and the card stays in place. The girl with the blinking green hearing aids is one of thirteen children aged seven to ten who are learning through play about the laws of science connected with water and air at The Life Science Learning Lab (Gläsernes Labor) on this July day. Course leader Ilona Kurth had gathered all the children around the two sinks at the front of the practice room and asked if anyone knew the trick with the “magic cup.” Ellen immediately raised her hand.
The fact that her kindergarten group from the Elisabethstift, where children with mild special needs such as ADHD, autism or minor physical limitations are cared for, can spend a day at The Life Science Learning Lab is thanks to an initiative by Feraye Kocaoglu and Victoria Malchin. In 2023, they called on their colleagues at the Max Delbrück Center to donate money toward enabling disadvantaged children to attend a course at The Life Sciences Lab. The 1,500 euros raised made a second course offering this summer possible.
Scientific laws are exciting—and so is cell structure
While the group from the Elisabethstift experiences “Wonderful Water Experiments” at The Life Science Learning Lab, director Claudia Jacob gives eleven slightly older children from the Berliner Herz children's hospice a crash course in microscopy.
The children from the Berlin Heart Children's Hospice were given a crash course in microscopy.
Each of the teenagers has a sibling who is terminally ill. First, the group studies the structure of plant cells. The highlight of the day: isolating genetic information from cells in the oral mucosa. “To do this, we break open the cell membrane using surfactants and centrifuge the cell interior. The genetic information then becomes visible as a kind of gray veil,” says Claudia Jacob.
Ilona Kurth also shows the children experiments at The Life Science Learning Lab. After introductory exercises such as creating waves on the water surface or bubbles underwater, the boys and girls build a water mountain. To do this, they fill a tealight holder with orange-colored water using a pipette. Once the holder is full, more water is added drop by drop. The children are amazed that it doesn’t overflow but forms a “water mountain” about two millimeters high. “The water molecules hold together. Only when the pressure is greater than the surface tension does the water start to overflow,” explains Ilona Kurth.
Experiments to take home
Break on the green Campus Buch
After the first hour and a half, there’s a well-deserved break. “I am impressed by the group; the children are quiet and attentive and help each other,” says Ilona Kurth. The children are having fun too. Kevin, a blonde boy with colorful glasses, is particularly excited about the water tornado. This effect occurs when you pour water from one connected plastic bottle to another while shaking vigorously. Ellen likes the water mountain experiment best: “I didn’t know that one before and thought it was really great,” says the girl appreciatively.
It's fitting that the experiments don’t end after the day at The Life Science Learning Lab: All of the children receive a bag containing additional exciting projects, such as how to make a wallet themselves. And in the protocol that the children write, they can look back read how the experiments in the lab worked. Ellen can now build a water mountain at home too.
Text: Wiebke Peters
