With the support of a Norwegian grant, a space cognition center for pupils, teachers and pre-school children with parents will be established in Cēsis to create an interactive and attractive environment for learning science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), LETA found on the State Education Development Agency’s (VIAA) website .
The statement states that this week the director of the agency Dita Traidās and the chairman of Cēsis County Council Jānis Rozenbergs (JV) signed an agreement on the implementation of the Norwegian grant project “Establishment of an Innovation Center in Cēsis” for the establishment of a space cognition center.
According to the information provided by VIAA, in the next three years the premises and interest education programs of Cēsis Space Cognition Center will be formed on space topics in five sub-themes – society, cosmology, technology, health and living in space.
Interest education sessions and interactive exhibits will look for answers to questions such as why people want to fly in space, what are the biggest space secrets that help to fly in space, how to prepare for the space flight that a person needs to live outside the planet Earth and others.
He pointed out that the establishment of a space cognition center in Cēsis is a significant addition to the traditions of the existing innovation center “ZINOO” not only in Cēsis, but also for the modernization of such natural science interests and knowledge centers in Latvia. “With its experience, Cēsis has served as an incentive for the European Economic Area (EEA) and Norwegian funding program” Research and Education “to contribute to the development of such centers in Latvia,” said the director of VIAA.
According to her, the aim of the grant is to stimulate children’s and young people’s curiosity in various fields of science, and she believes that its contribution to the development of modern content and technology in the new center will help create an exciting and creative collaborative research environment not only for children and young people. educational and scientific institutions.
In the project, Cēsis municipality plans to establish workshops, co-creation premises, laboratories and others. interactive exhibitions, as well as to create 50 interactive exhibitions, three educational programs and five exciting classes in the fields of natural sciences and engineering and technology. In turn, training seminars are provided for teachers to strengthen their competence in teaching STEM subjects.
The project “Establishment of an Innovation Center in Cēsis” is financed by the EEA and Norwegian grant program “Research and Education” and its total costs are EUR 2,146,856.00, of which EUR 1,642,346.20 is co-financed by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism, EUR 289,825.80 – Latvian state budget co-financing, but 214 684.00 euros – Cēsis municipality co-financing.
VIAA informed that the project will be implemented by Cēsis municipality in close cooperation between the partners involved in the project – the Norwegian space education center “NAROM” and Riga Technical University, as well as other science and innovation centers in Latvia.
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