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 a Finnish acronym roughly equivalent to the English acronym STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics).
We are a part of LUMA Centre Finland, which is a network of Finnish universities, each with its own local LUMA Centre. Our goal in South-West, as the goal of all the LUMA Centres around 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 all 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 do in practice?
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. These can include activities such as hands-on experiments on density, visits to the university’s Zoological Museum, or learning mathematical magic tricks. Schools can also borrow scientific equipment from us to carry out their own experiments in the classroom or outdoors near the school. In addition, we provide in-service training for teachers who want to learn more about teaching specific science topics.
For leisure-time activities, we currently run two monthly events: Lasten lauantai (“Kids’ Saturday”) at the Botanical Garden and Tiedeilta (“Science Nights”) on the university campus. Both events feature a researcher presenting their work, along with themed activities especially for children, and Tiedeilta is for all interested in science. The theme changes from month to month depending on the visiting scientist. At the Botanical Garden, topics often relate to nature, for example, how plants grow, the world’s weirdest birds, or meeting live spiders. On the university campus, the themes are broader: we have hosted researchers from across the university, from ecologists and astronomers to sound researchers and psychologists. We also organise summer science camps, science clubs during the school year, and take part in a wide range of events run by other organisations bringing a touch of science to everyone.
If you would like to see what we offer for visiting international groups, please see the link below: “Activities for international groups.”