9 Time Zones Away. . . : Børnenes Universitet / Children's University

Stella and I went to an awesome event at the Danish Technology University called Børnenes Universitet / Children's University. 500 kids, age 8-13, was invited for free inside at DTU for a day of exciting lectures on energy and space research, trial and experimentation. We met real scientists and discovered how much fun it is to work with science and technology.

There were different workshops, where you could try things like building meteor craters, play atoms, set fire to smoke, isolate DNA from banana cells and fight through the digestive system.
We all started off by talking about atoms in the auditorium. I thought they organized it very well with red and green pieces of paper to answer questions with. Did you know that as many times as you multiply an atom to be the size of a Ping-Pong ball, if you multiply the same amount with the Ping-Pong ball the ball would be the same size as the world!!!

I was in a workshop called "Cells and DNA". We were only 4 girls in the group. I felt that we got more attention and work done. We first got in the room and saw their presentation on DNA and cells. I thought that they had a good introduction and that they helped us understand even better. After they presented, we did an experiment with finding the cells of a banana. If you want to try it (yes, it is home friendly and fun- though you do need the help of an adult, handling the cold spirit) here are the instructions:

mash up half of a banana in a bowl, add water if it helps
in another bowl, add soap (preferably clear and about a quarter cup) and a pinch or two of salt- mix slowly and without causing bubbles
put a cup of spirit in the freezer until cold
get a new, clean bowl/ or glass and add some of your banana, soap/salt mix- stir without causing bubbles
in a new bowl/glass pour the spirit in, then add the banana/ soap mix slowly
wait for about an hour
see your results and write what you saw under comments...
(SORRY IF THE MEASUREMENTS WERE'NT EXACT, WE JUST USED SHOT GLASSES INSTEAD OF BOWLS)

Look here for the Danish recipe. (it might be more exact...)

When we were finished with the experiment, we went on a scavenger hunt around the cell. We went to the entrance where we gave the outer part of the cell a sugar cube. As we entered the cell, we started looking for the first thing that we needed to do. Then we went onto the second. They we all very fun and all reminded me of ISM and the things that we would do to help us learn. There were fun stations such as:

We had to drink an energy drink so that we would have enough power to go on
We had to copy the DNA and then take each 3 DNA piece and match it to a bead
There was another station where we had to unlock a tube and take out a pink balloon- it said, "Tillykke, du har fundet din vej gennem en celle!"