In addition to playful scientific exhibits related to metal, youth, especially elementary school pupils, will soon learn more about ecology in Steel Park.
Almost eleven years have passed since the opening of the unique and until then unusual exposition of the creative factory Steel Park, which was created on the basis of intensive cooperation of the guarantor of the project - the company U. S. Steel Košice with the Technical University of Košice, the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the University of P. J. Šafárik in Košice. The project, which was one of the drivers of the European Capital of Culture 2013, aimed to start technical and scientific thinking in the awareness of pupils and students in the city and the whole region and to popularize the world of technology and technology among them in an attractive, playful and creative form. However, development is still moving forward. How to make Steel Park an even more popular, attractive and purposeful place for education in the future?
Interesting plans for the modernization of the creative factory have been carried out by the contributory organization of the city of Košice – K13 Košice Cultural Centres, under whose competence Steel park has been falling since 2013.
"At the time of its creation, Steel Park presented an authorial, design and technologically unique set of exhibits connecting playfulness and science on the subtext of the metallurgical process. It was intended primarily for the second level of primary schools and secondary schools. As time has shown, nowadays the majority of visitors are primary school pupils and their younger siblings accompanied by parents and teachers. This experience predetermines the character of the new view of exhibits on the user level. From an ideological point of view, we consider ecology and the direction of various physical and other processes to show the relationship between knowledge of the world and its protection as the main theme. Key concepts such as renewables, primary energy and recycling are compatible with many of the existing exhibits at Steel Park, which are still operational thanks to long-term maintenance and care. Some of them will be enough to gently adjust, some to change the content and maintain formal functionality," informed Mgr. Ing. Martin Dani, who is entrusted with the representation of the statutory body K 13 – Košice Cultural Centres.
"The concept of new exhibits should present continuity with the previous program in light of new knowledge, technologies and societal challenges. We would like to transform the focus on science from the presence and energy of the Earth through space to scientific and technical functions of science fiction, which suggest future scenarios of humanity," said doc. PaedDr. Mgr. art. Boris Vaitovič, ArtD, from the Faculty of Arts of the Technical University in Košice, who participates in the new concept of the exposition.
As in the years of establishment of Steel Park, a team of experts from Košice universities and the Slovak Academy of Sciences was created, expanded by skilled craftsmen who will help in the implementation of selected exhibits. At regular meetings, they create individual approaches and exhibits together.
