HEK for schools

3D Creatures and Augmented Reality

The abilities of non-human beings are often underestimated by us humans. In the workshop, children and teenagers take a closer look at such unique abilities and create animated creatures using an online 3D tool. With the help of the Augmented Reality app "Artverse," these creatures can be perceived in space and complemented with sounds, texts, and noises. What does an electricity being look like? What does it sound like? How do we encounter it?

Duration: 2-2.5 Hours
Age: 4th grade - secondary school
Costs: 150 CHF

HEK Orbit: Science Fiction and Digital Worlds

In this multi-day workshop, children and teenagers develop an online world with their creatures and stories with the help of science fiction narratives and digital tools. They will collect images from the internet on various themes, draw characters, take photographs of backgrounds, create GIFs, scan objects in 3D, and weave them together online to create a world. The different areas of this world are interconnected through digital portals. A self-narrated audio tour complements the created world. The individual worlds are then made accessible online on hek-orbit to create a diverse collection of stories and visions about the internet, artificial intelligence, and our living world.

Duration: approx. 3 x 3h, it can also be continued at school.
Age: 4th grade - secondary school
Costs: depending oun duration of workshop

Discover PlanetB here.

In this workshop, we use the digital platform common.garden, developed by the artist Constant Dullaart, which is freely accessible.

Self-guided tours of school groups of any age are warmly welcomed anytime during opening hours. Thank you for registering under vermittlung[at]hek.ch or +41 (0)61 283 60 51.

We encourage our young visitors to take part in discussions sparked by the exhibition, to share their views on art and to link what they see with their own lives and personal concerns. We take children’s questions very seriously and see our task in supporting them in developing and formulating their own perspectives and individual views.

At the moment we are offering tours in the current exhibition
We are happy to reference current curriculum content in our guided tours and discussions.

Hands-on workshop for young people with and without disabilities in cooperation with the insieme Basel Bildunsgclub.

Experiment with a solar lamp or make solid shampoo. In the make together workshops, young people with and without disabilities realise projects together, exchange ideas and learn from each other. The activities in the workshops address ecological topics and take a sustainable approach to the environment.

The make together workshops at HEK take place in cooperation with insieme Basel Bildungsclub. In each workshop, a regular school class works together with a special needs class. In expert workshops, the children transform glass jars into solar lamps and decorate them.

make together is a cooperation project of the Institute for Special Needs Education of the PHBern and insieme Switzerland.

* Thanks to the support of a foundation, we can provide financial assistance to school classes with a small budget. Get in touch with us!

With found objects, recycling materials and vibrating motors pupils build a trash dance bots and let them dance around! They learn how a simple electrical circuit functions and explore questions of robotics: How do you program movements? What role does the body play?

The workshop includes an introduction to soldering.

«Live Coding» is the programming of electronic music in real time. The computer becomes a musical instrument that is then played live.

In the workshop, students work with the text-based programming environment SonicPi and learn the basic concepts of electronic music. After a short introduction to the principles of sound generation (synthesiser) and working with samples, the students work in pairs on a melody or a rhythm and experiment with sound and code. Finally, the students play their music on our sound system and can download it to their mobile devices.

For larger classes, we suggest splitting into two groups. While one group plays with sound making, the other group can explore the current exhibition.

Where does your nose begin? How does a computer actually «see»?

In the workshop students learn about the principles of computer vision based on the artworks of Simone C. Niquille - and hoover robots. They put themselves in the role of a computer and investigat with simple means, how a computer system sees the human body. In the process, they have to decide: «Where does your nose begin?»

The workshop was developed in collaboration with the artist Simone C. Niquille and the MU Hybrid Art House in Eindhoven (NL).

In the workshop children develop interactive animal pictures with the small Makey Makey controller. Upon touching the self-built "buttons", the singing unicorn or the beeping bat tell their stories.

In the process, children learn how an electric circuit functions, gain insights into block-based programming with Scratch and work on their own projects in small groups.

It doesn't always have to be the Vitaparcours! In small groups, the pupils develop a series of interactive stations, which are to be mastered with physical effort.

The pupils learn about the functioning of a control circuit and gain insights into programming with Scratch. They develop their own ideas into small projects and implement them.

The short films that students create in these workshops explore the distinction between documentation and fiction. The exhibitions on view provide inspiration with their video projections, screens, installations and robots, and in turn provide perfect backdrops for creating films.

Who hasn't puzzled their way out of an Escape Room in time? We turn the tables and develop our own interactive puzzles in a workshop and also implement them technologically. Kaboom!

To prepare workshops or class visits teachers receive free admission to the exhibition space.

Receive information about exhibitions, our current offers for schools, and relevant contributions from our blog – four times a year. The newsletter is published in German.

Our blog offers worksheets for download with instructions for do-it-yourself and teaching.

For example:

Seedballs: Guerilla Gardening for a colorful garden

Mobile phone pouches: off the grid without switching off your device

DIY Flashlight: the simplest flashlight in the world

Touch gloves: Update for the winter with gloves that allow swiping without cold fingers

Search for digital Easter eggs: discover secret functions of software on the Internet, operating systems and cell phones