“Presenting the Wonders of Modern Scientific Development in Malta – Esplora Geared to Meet the Digital World”
Modern Scientific Development in Malta
The Esplora Interactive Science Centre at Bighi, near Kalkara, was officially opened on 26th October in 2016 and today attracts over 100,000 visitors annually, mainly children, school visits and families. Under the auspices of the Malta Council for Science and Technology under the Chairmanship of former Member of Parliament Dr Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, it is a Centre that gives vent to questioning and investigation where the young visitors are encouraged to explore, think, imagine and activate.
The Centre is housed in the old Royal Naval Hospital at Bighi suitably transformed with the help of EU Funds and enjoying a splendid view of the Grand Harbour. It now consists of several buildings and outdoor spaces that are all interconnected. The main exhibitions areas and landscaped gardens house over 200 exhibits that are not simply there to be viewed but to be handled, manipulated and motivated to exploit their scientific development.
Needless to say, it is also highly popular with accompanying adults who just love to experience the hands-on workshops and entertaining and informative science shows and their relevance to modern living.
Exploring the avenues of the future
Exploring the Avenues of the Future
The latest addition was a 270 tonne geodisc globe with a diameter width of 11 metres, a €3.5 million Planetarium that was officially opened in October of 2017. The theatre part sits 54 spectators and puts on dramatic shows of the sun, moon, earth and the solar system. There are 13 exhibits on show that portray the cosmos and life in space.
The Centre has drawn international admiration and has been selected by the EU Commission as one of its most emblematic projects in the science field of the overall Cohesion Policy and also featured in an exhibition staged by the Commission in Brussels.
Before renovation, the hospital had been in a state of abandonment for many years and the transformation took three years at a cost of €26 million.
Scientific exploration
Scientific Exploration
Now further access has been provided to decrease road traffic flow to the Centre with the provision of a direct ferry service from the Valletta Wharf to Esplora.
I made comparisons between these developments and my upbringing 70 years ago, and that of all those aged like me.
I don’t actually much remember what I was, who I was or what questions I asked as a five-year-old, particularly science questions, but I guess they must have been queries like “Why does the sun go down and it becomes dark?” and “How many stars are there in the sky? Can I count them”.
My grandson Gabriel is now ten years old and today asks questions like “Is your hi-fi strong right now because I want to download a new game on my Ipad?” and “Do you read Japanese because the game instructions are in Japanese?”
Exploring the Solar System
Exploring the Solar System
My goodness how times have changed! Let’s take education. Gabriel started Kinder in 2017 and today is now at the new Qawra Primary School with students hailing from no less than 25 countries and therefore a pot pourri mix of nationalities, religions, languages and customs. Finding some kind of multicultural blend is in itself a miracle based on various tenets.
Malta’s two official languages are official at the school, that is Maltese and English, although in many cases many of the parents speak neither and nor do some of the children at the start. I have looked through Gabriel’s textbooks and they do not even have the merest resemblance to those in my day at this stage.
School visits
School Visits
My memories are of hours reciting things in a sung version like “A, B, C, D, E, F, G,” – a brief pause, “H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P”.
Arithmetic was “1 times 2 is 2, 2 times 2 is 4, 3 times 2 is six….” and so on – going through all the multiplication tables. Later it was stupid questions like “if it takes three men to dig a hole how long would it take six men to dig the same sized hole?”
Well, none of that claptrap today. This is the Digital Age, the age of Robotics, the age of Cohesion and by the time that children like Gabriel grow up, all this Digital stuff will be in full swing and – who knows – a weekend break may be a weekend on the Moon, or Mars!
In the meanwhile he continues to perplex me with questions like “did you have an Ipad?” and “how many Facebook friends did you have when you were my age?”
Much to see and study
Much to See and Study
By today’s developments he just cannot conceive or reconcile himself that there was once a world without televisions, without computers, without laptops, without Ipads and without instant news.
Have our kids and youngsters taken over our world, a world in which we lived without all these trappings but with much love and has now become today’s world of robotic development but sadly with much less love?
This is how it appears to me.
A visit to Malta today MUST SURELY include a day-long visit to Esplora, particularly if you are accompanied by children because they will be enthralled and will remember it for ever.
Author Bio: Albert Fenech
BeSeeingYou In: (Esplora – a wondrous modern-techno and hands-on exhibition 24/7)
Good To Know: (Learn and live the impact of techno evolvements around you)
WOW Factor: (Make your own hands-on techno discoveries)
TIP: (A real shame to miss for children, youths and adults)
_________________ __________________
MALTESE SAYING
“If you cut off a donkey’s tail he will remain a donkey”.
The equivalent of a leopard never changes its spots. The allegory is that a donkey is dumb and therefore it was dumb and even after it lost its tail it remained dumb.
_________________ ___________________
