Vacation in the Forest: Explore a Microcosm and Discover Historic Trades

During summer vacation, two exciting workshops at the forum natura Nature Discovery Center invite children and teens to explore the forest from entirely new perspectives.

Kicking things off on July 28, 2026 , is the free workshop “Small Forest Creatures, Big Discoveries.” Students in grades 5 through 9 will build their own small microscopes, collect natural specimens, and explore the hidden world of leaf structures, tree bark, and water droplets. The organisms and structures they discover will then be drawn and identified together. The event is organized in cooperation with the Lichtwerkstatt Jena – Open Photonics Makerspace at Friedrich Schiller University of Jena.

On July 30 and 31, 2026, the two-day summer workshop “The Forest as a Workplace – Who Worked in the Jena Forest?” will take place for students in grades 6 through 8. Together, the participants will embark on a journey through time into the history of the Jena Forest. Using digital media and an excursion, they will explore how charcoal burners, lumberjacks, and stonemasons worked in the past and what traces these professions have left on the landscape to this day. This program is a collaborative project between the Jena City Forestry Office and the Chair of Digital Humanities at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena.

Both workshops will take place at the forum natura Nature Discovery Center. The meeting point for both is the NETTO parking lot at Friedrich-Körner-Straße 2.