At the Dusseldorf headquarters of Henkel, the chemical and consumer goods company behind familiar names such as Schwarzkopf, Bloo and Loctite, there’s one laboratory that looks a little different from the others. The laboratory tables are stocked with child-sized lab coats, beakers, tongs, pipettes and safety goggles. There’s a colourful breakout area to encourage play, and the lockers are shaped like water droplets hanging from a ceiling of blue and white clouds. It’s the birthplace of Forscherwelt, or “Researchers’ World”, an educational initiative aimed at inspiring groups of eight- to 10-year-olds to become scientists.
“If you want to get kids interested in science, you need to start early,” Ute Krupp, Henkel’s senior manager for education relations and the founder of Forscherwelt, says. “If you start when they’re teenagers, they have so many other things on their minds. Young children are so naturally curious and they love doing research.”
