For information about our Waldsee summer program sessions, click on the link below:
Waldsee Program Sessions
Click here to register for your Waldsee session: Registration
Join us this summer at the German Language Village, Waldsee, for a busy and exciting adventure of 
German language and culture, science and environmental learning during our one-week, two-week, four-week credit and family programs. Immerse yourself in the German language and experience German culture through environmental learning in North America’s first certified Passivhaus which challenges you and your friends, equipped with metric rulers, digital thermometers, a list of clues, and lots of energy to explore how the BioHaus works, how it generates energy, and why it consumes 85% less energy than a standard house in Minnesota.
Through hands-on experiments, such as building your own models and testing them in the field, find out how the renewable energy systems like wind, solar hot water, solar photovoltaic, geothermal and hydrogen fuel cell work. Explore science concepts such as convection, the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen, and the production of electricity using renewable energy sources.
Come and help us reduce our carbon footprint along the path to becoming a carbon neutral village. Together we will plant new trees, produce energy on our human-powered generator, and learn to live more sustainably.
You will learn how to build your own Sonnenofen (solar oven) from simple materials such as cardboard, 
aluminum foil, paint and glass. And if the sun is shining, you get to field test your Sonnenofen and enjoy your culinary creation on the BioHaus deck. Still hungry? We invite you to prepare your own pizza or make your own German Kuchen in our brand new, state-of-the art BioHaus kitchen featuring Germany’s most energy efficient appliances from the Bosch-Siemens-Haushaltsgeräte corporation.
This summer, our Grüne Welle villagers of Waldsee’s 4-week environmental credit program will live at the 
BioHaus, measure and monitor its vital signs, and become intricately familiar with the Passivhaus concepts. To test their understanding of a passive house’s thermal capacity, participants will build their own model passive house and attempt to keep an ice block cool inside the model house. Model passive houses will line Waldsee’s Marktplatz. As time and solar radiation attempt to melt the ice, villagers chart the effectiveness of their model homes.
Other experiments include constructing model wind generators, field testing them, and measuring the potential for wind generation at Waldsee. Putting theory into practice, villagers will draft a proposal for wind generation and assess the most suitable location before presenting their findings to the Waldsee Village Planning Committee.
Aside from these extended projects, Grüne Welle villagers participate in many other activities such as going on a multi-day canoe trip on the Mississippi, biking, hiking, camping at the Grüne Welle wilderness site, conducting a lake study including the monitoring of the water quality, and participating in and hosting environmental simulations.
Waldsee BioHaus offers programs and activities for villagers of all ages and science and language skill levels. Enrich your Waldsee German language experience by participating and/or living in the BioHaus.
For information about our Waldsee summer program sessions, click on the link below:
Waldsee Program Sessions
Click here to register for your Waldsee session: Registration
If you have any specific questions about BioHaus programs or the BioHaus itself, feel free to contact me via email: [email protected]
Hope to see you this summer at the BioHaus!
Bis bald,
BioHaus eddy
