In February Søren Winther Bruun, who works at Novo Nordisk Måløv in Denmark, visited his sons 3. grade class as Health Henning together with Professor Jumpalot. The visit was part of a Science Theatre tour in Denmark, which Novo Nordisk organized. Read about Søren's exciting visit hear:

Last autumn I read about School Challenge in a canteen in Måløv. Among other things, there was a wheel (a sort of dial) with lots of information on ’kids changing diabetes’, exercise, healthy eating, etc. We had first-hand experience of diabetes because one of my son’s classmates had just been diagnosed with it.

Popular Science Theatre
After the class had seen and tried out the ’wheel’, I was asked whether I could get more because the class teacher wanted to incorporate the wheel into the teaching. That was how I first came into contact with School Challenge. I quickly received wheels for all the pupils in the class, and I was also contacted by Karen Gemal, who is a project manager in Corporate Relations.

Karen told me about a Science Theatre activity for years 3-4 called ‘Professor Jumpalot’s Mission’. This activity was to be introduced during December 2006 and January 2007, and I was asked if I wanted to take part in a performance with my son’s class. As a Novo Nordisk employee, I regard the aim of focusing on healthy lifestyle to prevent type 2 diabetes (and other lifestyle diseases) as a natural part of my daily work. I therefore put the idea to my son’s class teacher that Novo Nordisk would like to invite a year 3 class to receive a free visit from Professor Jumpalot (in the guise of two performers from the Lope de Vega theatre group), and she took up the offer immediately.

Ready to start
We agreed that the performance would be launched at the end of January at Asgård School in Køge, south of Copenhagen. The performance takes about three hours to complete and requires a good hour’s preparation.

I arrived just after 7 o’clock in the morning with two ladies from Lope de Vega, and after a short introduction they began to ’train’ me in the role of Professor Jumpalot’s assistant. I don’t know what I had expected or imagined, but suddenly it became clear to me that within the next hour I would be acting in front of 3A, many of whom I had known for a good three years. Somewhat guardedly, I asked whether there might not be a slightly smaller role for me, and I made the two ladies aware that it was more than 20 years since I had done any acting. But it was to no avail, and before I could slip out of the back-door, I was facing 25 expectant pupils and two just as expectant teachers.

Health-Henning
Although I was wearing a lab-coat and safety goggles, the pupils recognised me immediately, and it seemed as if the hilarity would never end when one of the performers from Lope de Vega introduced me as Professor Jumpalot’s assistant – ‘Health-Henning’ – which was the first time that I heard the name.

Professor I. Jumpalot introduced himself and explained that he had travelled back from the year 2057 to get help changing the future. This is because the future is dominated by a villain named Simon Sugarmore, whose unhealthy rules have been really detrimental to health. Professor I. Jumpalot has managed to travel back to the present to get expert help from children because it is only with the help of the pupils of class 3A that he can rescue the health situation – in the future it’s already too late!

The pupils were quite surprised that they themselves were all going to take part in the play, but they also thought it was mega-cool that they would get to be our super-scientists at Jumpstart Academy. They were also really enthusiastic about getting to wear lab-coats and safety goggles.

During the performance the pupils got to do lots of different, fun physics and chemistry experiments, role-play, sugar stacking, sugar water tasting/cola testing and various pulse rate tests.

It was a joy to see how much they entered into their roles, and how quickly they got the point of the various tasks.

There was some wild dancing to the School Challenge song (which can be heard on the School Challenge website), and I know that many of the pupils have listened to it many times since on the website.

Very impressed
Although the performance only lasted a few hours, it still made a lot of impressions on me. As well as being deeply impressed with the knowledge that the children had on the subject, I was left with one impression in particular. For the parting scene in which all the super-scientists have to say goodbye to I. Jumpalot and his assistant, the pupils were asked to each come up with a farewell thank you sentence to whisper to us when we said goodbye. None of the pupils discussed it and no one knew what the others said. It was really moving to have so many kind, beautiful and magnificent words whispered in our ears when the pupils came up in a long line to shake our hands. Words that came from the heart and at the same time proved that they had understood the message of the mission. They felt that they had made a difference, and they were proud of it.

Super scientists of the future
With the positive attitude to the tasks and the enthusiasm that the pupils showed for the day, it would not surprise me if in about 10-12 years we see a new team of super-scientists at Novo Nordisk. In that case, I will be rather proud of the fact that I have helped to train them at Jumpstart Academy…

Novo Nordisk has relaunched the Novo Nordisk School Challenge website, which has lots of fun and educational activities for children aged 9-14. If it is possible, I would highly recommend that you try to take part actively in a performance. It’s great fun – especially if you really go for it and throw yourself into the concept.