Techmania Plzeň will have 27 interactive exhibits on astronomy

Plzeň - The Techmania Science Center in Pilsen, focused on popularizing science, will build a system of 27 large interactive exhibits on astronomy and astrophysics by October next year. The exhibition will take visitors from the nearest to the deepest universe. It will showcase, for example, a black hole or a real spacesuit, said Tomáš Moravec, spokesman for the science center, to ČTK.
    "All exhibits, which must be interactive, were designed by our people," he added. Thanks to the new complex being built with 600 million crowns from the EU, the number of interactive exhibits will expand by hundreds. Approximately 380 million crowns will be spent on the construction expansion of Techmania and the rest on the exhibits.
    "We have no inspiration in the Czech Republic. We draw heavily from foreign science centers, conferences, and seminars," Moravec said. The space exhibition is being designed by Tomáš Meiser, a physicist and astrophysicist, who collaborates with a team of didactics and methodologists to ensure the concept aligns with framework educational programs and maximizes benefits for children. The objects will be created by designer Štěpán Soutner, who has his own train model in Techmania, with which he won the Talent Design 2011 award.
    The educational, safe, playful, and tasteful objects will come in various sizes so that even smaller children can interact with them. They will also include models of planets and an exhibit explaining the ratio of their size to density.
    "In addition to this exhibition, a fully equipped planetarium, including a virtual reality space, will also open in October 2013 in the former Škoda dining hall," Moravec stated. The virtual reality space for 140 people will feature a giant dome above the planetarium with a diameter of up to 40 meters for projecting films about planets, the human body, and the aquatic world in 3D. "This is a unique technology, of which there are only ten in the world," Moravec said.
    In 2014, a set of 24 interactive exhibits titled Human Body will be created in the renovated and expanded building of the Pilsen Škodovka. They are designed so that one can compare themselves to, for example, an animal, Moravec stated. Furthermore, there will be an Aquatic World exhibit that will showcase the properties of water, such as water mills on rivers, a Film Playing studio, and an exhibit called Small Science, which aims to introduce physical and chemical principles of "ordinary" professions like bricklayer or cook to children aged three to six.