LUMA Centre South-West
Most of our activities and materials are offered in Finnish, and thus the information about them is also in only Finnish. You can find the pages in Finnish describing our activities in more detail at the top of the page. Info on science activities we offer for international groups coming to Turku, see the link at the bottom of the page.
Who are we?
LUMA is an acronym, roughly equivalent to the English acronym STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering Arts, Mathematics).
We are a part of LUMA Centre Finland, which is a network of Finnish universities, all with their own local LUMA Centre. Our goal in South-West, the goal of all the LUMA Centres arounf Finland and of LUMA Centre FInland is to inspire and motivate children and youth into mathematics, science and technology through the latest methods and activities of science and technology education. The aim is also to support the life-long learning of teachers working on levels of education from early childhood to universities, and strengthen the development of research-based teaching.
Read more about LUMA Centre Finland and the entire network.
LUMA Centre South-West is a part of the Faculty of Science of the University of Turku.
What do we practically do?
Our activities are divided into to main categories: those aimed at schools, classes and teachers and those aimed at the general public as free time science activities.
For schools, we offer visits to the university, including some activities ranging from doing experiments with density to visiting the university’s zoological museum to learning mathematical magic tricks. Schools can also borrow scientific equipment from us in order to conduct their own experiments in their own classrooms or outside near the school. We also offer additional education for teachers, who want to learn more about teaching specific science topics.
For free time activities, we currently have two monthly events: Lasten lauantai (or Kid’s Saturday) at the botanical garden and Tiedeilta (or Science Nights) at the university campus. Both include scientists telling about their research topic and some theme related activities for the kids and in Tiedeilta also anyone else interested to join in. The topic thus changes from month to month, depending on the scientist joining us. At the botanical garden the topics are often something to do with nature, from how plants grow to the weirdest birds in the world to meeting live spiders. At the university campus the themes are more wide-range: we’ve had scientist from all parts of the university from ecologists and astronomers to sound researchers and psychologists. We also arrange science camps during the summer, clubs during the school year and participate in all kinds of events arranged by other parties to bring a little science to everyone there.
Our Tiedeilta in May will uncharacteristically be in English! The topic is Spiders galore, where our spider researcher will dissect a spider and teach its anatomy. You will also get to meet live spiders. If you’re in individual person or family living (or visiting) in Turku, are free on May 21st and would like to join, please send us an email at hemtuo@utu.fi for additional info!
If you want to see what we have to offer for a visiting international groups, see the link below titled “Activities for international groups”