Making the world bigger for children

Where did Nabil (10) get his interest in robots from? No idea, says his father, while he proudly watches Nabil sitting in utter concentration behind his laptop. Nabil makes a program so that his lego robot can drive a circle around his chair. His parents have no technical knowledge, but they are keen to stimulate Nabil’s ambitions. A social worker from his primary school linked Nabil to the Super Sunday Science School at the HET LAB Rotterdam foundation.

A paradise for technicians is THE LAB, according to the story of founder Tom van Doveren, who supervises the children. For example, adults can follow workshops there, from laser cutting to programming. But the Super Sunday Science School is just for kids. Today they solder flashlights, make designs for the 3D printer and are busy with Lego Mindstorms: they can do whatever they want. There are gifted people walking around, but anyone with a little interest is welcome. And certainly also girls, Van Doveren emphasizes, who have at least as much talent as boys.

Making the world bigger for children is his motivation, especially for groups that, because of their background, do not come into contact with technology quickly, or get stuck in the sometimes rigid school system. Take Charlotte, he says. “A girl who was told in group three that it would never work out with her.” She learned 3D printing at HET LAB, started a YouTube channel that now has more than 10,000 followers, and now even speaks a little Japanese through the contacts she has gained through her channel.

In education, far too little is done about technology, says Van Doveren. Making things and discovering them in a playful way, without an assignment. He himself ‘goodly went through pre-university education’, did a sociology study and ran a research agency. But he had forgotten how much fun he took as a child to be his handy father’s right-hand man. Van Doveren changed course, started THE LAB and now spends almost all his time there. Having fun with the other volunteers who work on their own projects, coming up with ideas for and with the children. For example, they are going to make a working rocket together, just to name a few.

That certainly fits Janna (8), who has her 3D-printed rocket next to her like a trophy. With red cheeks from the effort, she designs a galaxy in the 3D drawing program Tinkercad. Her boyfriend Freek (8) is just as fanatical. His medieval castle, with a drawbridge, a watchtower and a kennel for the dog, is almost finished. In fact, all he has to do is make a horse, says Van Doveren. ‘Horse’ writes Freek in the courtyard of his castle.

Van Doveren beams at so much idiosyncrasy. “This is exactly what you do it for, isn’t it?”