THE BIOTOPIA LAB @ Home
You can experience the Lab even in times of Corona restrictions!
Even if you cannot visit us live at the moment: The BIOTOPIA Lab Team is there for you and provides you with exciting content, ideas and tips that you can try out and realise at home.
The BIOTOPIA team is working with great ambition on digital and analog formats, experiments and DIY concepts to bring you "hands-on science" to your home until the opening. "BIOTOPIA Lab @ Home" wants to arouse interest in scientific contexts and give you a small foretaste of the activities in the BIOTOPIA Lab - from the bottle garden or your own mushroom cultivation to the isolation of DNA from vegetables and fruits. We also plan to give you a look behind the scenes of the lab with experts who will hopefully make you look forward to your visit soon!
Do it Yourself:
Ideas from the BIOTOPIA Lab
You want to experiment, create and research yourself? Then you have come to the right place!
Our Lab Pilots are constantly developing new experiments, recipes and ideas for you, which you can easily try out at home.
Build your own tiny ecosystem
An entire ecosystem in a jar - interesting, pretty and easy to maintain! The eternal garden is super easy to build, gives pleasure, looks beautiful and best of all: it doesn't need to be watered for years! Even with simple things, which almost everyone has at home, you can create a completely functioning ecosystem!
Make your own chocolate spread
Have you ever looked at the ingredients of your favorite nut nougat cream? Many of them travel halfway around the world to give us our chocolate experience. Palm oil, for example, is now found in every second supermarket product. Unfortunately, however, its production is often associated with environmental destruction and exploitation. Good that our homemade chocolate cream does not need palm oil!
Code of Life: Isolate DNA from a banana
DNA is the basis of life on earth: every living being has DNA. Police officers use DNA traces to solve crimes. But it's not that easy to understand what DNA actually is. Usually we cannot see it. Here we show you how you can isolate DNA from a banana at home and make it visible, and you will learn even more about this topic.
Underground: Self-made root window
Life rages in the soil and there are lots of creatures crawling and creeping around. In this experiment you can take a closer look into a secret world and observe the growth of a root that is normally hidden under the surface of the earth. You can record your observations with a flipbook or on video.
Teaching material about mushrooms
LMU Students have put together this great teaching material on the subject of mushrooms for elementary schools as part
of the LMU's teacher training quality initiative. Learn more about how mushrooms are structured, which ones you can eat and which ones you'd rather not touch! (German only)
The BIOTOPIA Lab team recommends:
Instructions, activities and projects from the internet
Here the BIOTOPIA Lab Team provides you with all kinds of exciting links that we discovered online and can warmly recommend. Whether it's experiments for home use, do-it-yourself instructions, recipes, join-in projects or information material - here you're guaranteed to find something that will help you to become a discoverer and researcher even from home!
Detergent from chestnuts
Chestnuts contain many saponins - these are chemical compounds that have soap-like properties when dissolved in water. This is why ordinary chestnuts can be used to produce a first-class, completely biodegradable detergent. [In German]
© smarticular.net
Live from the bird house
The digital bird house is a feeding place for birds equipped with numerous sensors and a camera. Here you can comfortably make observations and investigations from home. [Descriptions in German]
What does fall smell like?
Wir wecken Eure Forschersinne bei einem herbstlichen Spaziergang. Erlebt diesen Herbst mit diesen spannenden Experimenten für Groß und Klein!
Make Kombucha yourself
Kombucha is a refreshing drink obtained with the help of fermentation processes, whose origin - depending on the source - is located in Japan or in northern China. The “clean drink” couldn't be more versatile. Aromas range from apple varieties to geranium or carrot kombuchas. Nevertheless, there is a basic recipe with which you can get started - and any future modification - very easily. Have fun brewing!
Why are the leaves colorful in fall?
Fall is known as "the colorful season" due to the many colorful leaves. But why do the leaves change color in autumn? And what colors are in the leaves? You can find out in this little experiment. [In German]
© MiniLab
Explore forest & climate
We provide many different games, activities and experiments for children to discover, feel and understand the forest ecosystem and the connection with climate protection. [In German]
Deutsches Museum at home
Experiments@home: In this series, Kim Ludwig-Petsch from the educational department of the Deutsches Museum shows small experiments that you can easily try out at home. [In German]
© Deutsches Museum
How to Make All-Natural Soap
All-Natural soap is not only free of industrial ingredients, but also a great and personal gift for loved ones! We have found a great DIY instruction for you.
Chromatography
How do scientists separate mixtures? Check out this video to learn how through a fun chromatography experiment.
Find more activities to do at home from our supporter Merck on their website.
© Merck: CuriosityLabs™ at Home
Make your own lava lamp
In this little experiment you make gel beads (Aqualinos or water beads) glow with fluorescent colors and a black light flashlight. With this you will surely amaze everyone! [In German]
© Entdeckerlab
Growing real crystals
When crystals grow in nature, it often takes many thousands of years. We will show you how you can grow real crystals at home in just a few days! [In German]
© GEOlino
Wave machine in a bottle
Sea waves are fascinating - sometimes gentle, sometimes stormy! With this webinar you can bring the waves to your home and examine them in detail. [In German]
The different Advent Calendar
Feel like having a different Advent? This Advent calendar wants to lead us back to the original idea of a contemplative pre-Christmas period. With this handicraft instruction your Advent gets a deeper meaning again! [In German]
© livelifegreen
You have become curious? Find out here what else you can experience in the BIOTOPIA Lab soon!
