Solution Studio
Solution Studio is back June 16-August 30, 2026!
Solution Studio 2026
Tuesday, June 16-Sunday, August 30
Our summer maker space is back, featuring activities and challenges inspired by the work of University of Minnesota researchers. In Solution Studio, you can follow your curiosity and let your creativity loose. Play games, build things, and awaken your inner scientist. We provide the materials and tools. You get to explore, create, experiment, and share!
Solution Studio highlights games that let you collaborate, compete, and discover. Grab a friend or play solo!
- Play science chase, a board game about the scientific process!
- Try the plant game. Will your plant survive, thrive, or wither?
- Make a tool to help you grab a ping pong ball off a column of air!
- Build a tower of tree species to represent a biodiverse forest that can stand up to threats!
- And more!
Scientists use creativity every day. They use their imaginations to solve real challenges facing people and the planet. Researchers from the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis St. Paul Long-Term Ecological Research program are learning how nature in cities is different from nature outside of cities. They ask how air, water, soil, plants, animals, and even humans are impacted by and adapt to an urban environment – and what we can do to improve the ecological health of cities. In Solution Studio, you get to solve challenges inspired by this cutting edge research!
Featured Research
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Play the Plant Game
Features Xue Feng (Principal Investigator, Urban Watersheds team / Feng Lab, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering, CSE)
Hydrologist Xue Feng studies how plants use resources to grow and reproduce – and how they impact water, carbon, and energy cycles. She and members of her lab model the complex tradeoffs that plants make to survive during cloudy weather or periods of drought.
Your challenge? Choose a plant, roll the dice to win resources, and use them to grow new leaves or make seedlings. Which plant will survive and reproduce?
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Build a Sampling Tool
Features Katie Pollik (PhD Candidate, Urban Ponds team / Jacques Finlay Lab, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, CBS)
Urban ponds can support wildlife, if they are healthy. Graduate student Katie Polik tests pond conditions by using special tools to collect samples in the field. These tools help her study tough, complex conditions to reveal how ponds benefit cities.
Your challenge? Make your own tool for collecting a sample. Doesn’t sound hard? The sample is a ping pong ball floating on a column of air, and roaming cattails may get in your way!
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Plot a Pollinator
Features Mary Marek-Spartz (Information Manager, MSP-LTER, CBS)
MSP LTER Information Manager Mary Marek-Spartz helps researchers make maps that let them understand their data in new ways. The Bee Lawns Team is studying bee habitat in cities. Maps help them visualize and analyze data to understand what conditions support different species of bees.
Your challenge? Choose a bee specimen and plot its location on a map. Can you find a pattern?
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Reveal Hidden Information
Features Lindsey Kemmerling (Postdoctoral Researcher, Urban Contaminants team / Emilie Snell-Rood Lab, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, CBS)
In cities, toxins can contaminate soil, air, and water, and harm the animals, plants, and people that use them. Postdoctoral researcher Lindsey Kimmerling is exploring ways to remove toxins from soil. But what way works best? Is it growing plants, adding biochar, or just leaving the soil alone?
Your challenge? Choose and color a field of plants, take it to the blacklight lab, and reveal what method removes toxins best!
Additional activities
Science Chase
Doing science means making progress, and sometimes starting over. Can you follow the steps to get to a scientific result in our big snakes and ladders game?
Weave an Air Quality Monitor Weave a monitor inspired by the lichen researchers are using to track air quality in cities.
Green Your City
Make your city go from gray to green by adding planters, rain gardens, and more in this magnet board challenge.
Build a Forest Tower
Make a tower of tree species that is biodiverse and can stand up to threats. How tall can you go before it falls over?
This work is funded by the National Science Foundation through its Long Term Ecological Research Program and Faculty Early Career Development Program
