New interactive museum in Turkey's Edirne makes learning a joy for children

When it comes to a child's education, learning is not simply limited to the classrooms. Children are prone to learn by experience. With that in mind, the biggest interactive children's museum in Turkey will be open in the northwest city of Edirne on Oct. 29 on the 95th anniversary celebration of the Republic of Turkey.

Content appropriate to the Ministry of National Education (MEB) curriculum was prepared for the Hasan Ali Yucel Children's Museum, one of Edirne Municipality's vision projects, with the contributions of professors from Ankara.

In the museum, children will learn the harmony of nature and technology and how technology is inspired by nature through experience. They will support this learning process with replicas of giant animal such as dinosaurs, mammoths and spiders.

Edirne Mayor Recep Gürkan said that technology is developing every day, and that schools alone are not enough for students, stressing that extracurricular learning environments are very important in terms of supporting children's education.

Gürkan noted that they set out with the aim of bringing the pleasure and success of learning to children through experience, adding that they are proud of implementing the biggest interactive children's museum in Turkey and the Balkans. Gürkan highlighted that such educational museums are very important for children to trigger their curiosity in the search for information.

"Our campus will serve today with the motto 'Our hands are at work, our minds are working' based on the Finnish model and the STEAM model, which the world is aware of today and is trying to implement. Our children will learn by having fun with various drama and theater techniques under the auspicious of drama leaders. They will be more aware and consciously prepared for the future by consolidating both school and social life," Gürkan continued. "Our children will learn the harmony of nature and technology and how technology is inspired by nature through experience. They will learn by exploring what animal inspired the helicopter in nature."

Gürkan underlined that this campus, with the training model and museum it incorporates, will be a center of attraction to serve not only Edirne but also Thrace and the Balkans.

Featured exhibits include Outdoor Paleontology, Outdoor Entomology, Outdoor Science and Outdoor Construction, Gürkan said, adding that the staff that will take part in the project were specially chosen as experts in their fields.

Gürkan also explained that the staff assigned to the project were provided with special training, and that Dean of Ankara University Faculty of Educational Sciences professor Fatma Bıkmaz, Ankara University Head of Department of Fine Arts Education and Museum Education of Faculty of Educational Sciences professor Ayşe Çakır İlhan and the Ankara University Head of Child Culture Research and Application Center and Deputy Head of the Museum Education Department professor Müge Artar also supported them on various matters.