400 curious children at Utrecht Science Park

Anouk Neerincx is researching social robots for youth health care and youth welfare, and is designing them together with children, parents and experts from youth welfare. Here, she looks at how social robots can be used to reduce stress and anxiety in children. In this programme, the children design and programme a robot and meet a real robot.

Feike Dietz is a researcher and lecturer in the study programmes 'Dutch Language and Culture' and 'Language and Culture Studies'. "In both programmes, we look at how people use texts, poems and songs to understand and change the world around them. By reading and looking closely at those kinds of texts and media, we get an idea of how people think about the world they live in." For Summerschool Junior, the children went in search of the answer to the question: What do Kinderen voor Kinderen songs say about the role of children then and now?

Lonneke IJsseldijk is a biologist and researcher at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, where she is mainly involved in research on marine mammals, especially the stranding of porpoises, dolphins and other whales. In this CSI programme, the children investigated all the evidence in order to eventually track down the culprit behind the strandings of the porpoises. How is it possible that porpoises wash ashore? And what did they die of?

Roel Vermeulen is professor of Environmental Epidemiology and Exposome Analysis. Together with his research team, they track down places where the air quality is poor so that those places can be improved. With special sniffing equipment, the children examined the air quality in the Utrecht Science Park and thought of ways to make the air even cleaner.

Susanna Plugge is a molecular cell biologist and works at the UMC Utrecht. She carries out research into Peutz-Jeghers syndrome. People with this disease have an error in their DNA at birth, which increases their risk of getting bowel cancer, for example. In this programme, the children discovered what DNA is exactly and why it is important. In addition, they did their own tests with DNA!

Jesse Hoffman researches how we as a society can make a future without fossil fuels possible. He studies how people talk about the future together and how images of the future influence all kinds of decisions, such as decisions about the use of natural gas. As part of Utrecht 900, the children first made a journey back in time to see how much can change in a short time. Then they made a journey through time and went to work on the City of the Future.

Lonneke Roelofs is a scientist and lecturer in Physical Geography. She studies how different mudflows flow on Earth and Mars, and how they change the landscape over time. The children experimented with mudflows and river flows, and investigated what that looks like on Mars. They also got a look into the ground with soil drilling. How did that material get there?