Phenomenta Lüdenscheid

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Phenomenta building and surroundings on an aerial photo
Illuminated tower of the Phenomenta at night

The Phenomenta Lüdenscheid is the first science center in North Rhine-Westphalia . Visitors can use their own senses to grasp and understand fundamental phenomena , which is why the facility was namedphenomenta , like similar facilities in Germany. The Lüdenscheiderphenomenta was founded in 1996 based on the model in Flensburg .

In contrast to a technology museum, in which mainly collections can be viewed, the Phenomenta is intended to experience and understand physics and technology . Thephenomenta borders directly on the city ​​center . Also of the Lüdenscheid train station , which has developed into a place of learning and study. Thephenomenta is connected directly to the train station via a pedestrian bridge.

history

In Flensburg, Professor Fiesser developed the Phenomenta concept and implemented it in an exhibition at the university in 1985. A few years later a house was built here. The Phenomenta Flensburg eventually became an important role model and namesake for the emerging exhibition in Lüdenscheid.

Phenomenta building before renovation from 2013

At the beginning of the 1990s, a small team of committed citizens drove the realization of the Lüdenscheid Phenomena. When the gates were opened in 1996 for the first visitors to the former Ernst Grüber factory, the museum was known as a “Science Center” - still largely unknown in Germany.

In the following years numerous new experiments were added. Many of them were created in our own workshop. Soon the rooms in which razors, fork-head caps and cutlery were once made are no longer sufficient. A modern extension was added in 2000, which houses the café. In 2009, due to a lack of space and to expand the area for special exhibitions, the building of the neighboring stonemasonry was acquired, before the extensive construction work for the last extension, including a 75-meter-high tower and Europe's largest kaleidoscope, began in 2013. All measures for the connection to an adjacent car park and the city center have now been completed.

Phenomenta as a building block of the think tank

Phenomenta tower under construction in February 2015

The Regionale 2013 opens up a good networking opportunity with the scientific experiments of the Phenomenta via the “think tank” with its individual modules, especially with the university of applied sciences.

In a playful way, young people in particular are introduced to physics and the natural sciences, but adults can still learn new things too. In the experiments that are to be discovered and tested, the focus is not on scientific explanations, but space is created for your own action and observation. Perception and amazement create hypotheses that are checked in the repetition of the experiment. The aim is to arouse interest in technology and natural sciences.

exhibition

The Phenomenta began when it opened in 1996 with 40 exhibits. Until the major expansion in 2015, the number of stations increased to 130 with the exhibition area. 100 of them have been completely revised and 70 new stations have been added. Today there are already over 180 interactive stations as a permanent exhibition, which are divided into 11 areas - so-called clusters - and are presented on two floors. For each exhibit there is a computer-controlled specialization station with the scientific explanation as a catalog text, selectable in three different languages ​​for research. The permanent exhibition has been regularly supplemented with additional offers since it reopened in 2015. This includes various workshops, readings and the annual WDR Discovery Day as well as changing exhibitions.

Foucault's pendulum

Suspended in the 78 meter high tower, the pendulum , which originally served the French scientist Léon Foucault as evidence of the earth's rotation in 1851, forms the central focus of the exhibition and shows the earth's rotation around its own axis. The same is in the tower and around the pendulum Europe's largest kaleidoscope installed.

Phenorama

The phenomenon is located directly below the Fouchault pendulum and Europe's largest kaleidoscope. Nine projectors project panoramic images of Lüdenscheid and the surrounding area onto a 360 ° screen. The images are recorded by eight cameras on the nearby Christ Church and played back every half hour as a time lapse. Various content about innovations from the region, people and places that once shaped the city and are important today can be accessed via nine touch panels. When content has been selected, the viewer can take in the spoken stories about the images. 60 places near and far on the city frieze in front of the 360 ​​° screen help you to orient yourself from the Lüdenscheid point of view.

Build up of other phenomena

In Bangkok , under the leadership of Nanmeebooks (the second largest book publisher in Thailand), a reduced edition of the Lüdenscheid “Phenomenta” was created in a 500 square meter hall. The samples from thephenomenta in Lüdenscheid enabled the Thais to replicate the stations using materials from their own country. This was gradually put into practice with 20 selected experimental stations. The difficulties lay in the procurement of materials, the climatic conditions, but also in the adaptation of the stations to the body size and delicacy of the Thai people. The publisher provided interpreters to facilitate communication between employees.

Web links

Commons :phenomenta Lüdenscheid  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 18.4 ″  N , 7 ° 37 ′ 42.5 ″  E

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Report on the Lüdenscheid Phenomena in the Westfalenspiegel (PDF; 204 kB); Retrieved on: April 20, 2017
  2. ↑ Denfabrik - South Westphalia. Retrieved December 10, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Article from the Lüdenscheider Nachrichten of May 24th, 2011: "Thais are building a mini-phenomenon"
  4. ↑ Article from the Lüdenscheider Nachrichten of June 2, 2011: "Work vacation spent in Thailand"