| Telus World of Science – Calgary | |
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Location in Calgary
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| Established | July 1, 1967 |
| Location | Calgary, Alberta |
| Type | Science museum |
| Visitor figures | 304,000 annually |
| Website | http://www.sparkscience.ca |
The Telus World of Science – Calgary is a science museum with interactive exhibits, multimedia presentations and educational demonstrations in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. There are three traveling exhibits every year and more permanent exhibits that are designed on-site. The Discovery Dome Theatre features films from across North America. There are more than 304,000 visitors annually, including over 54,000 students. In 2006 the Creative Kids Museum opened at the Telus World of Science, offering art-based learning. The original site, located on 11 Street SW in Calgary's Downtown West End, closed on June 27, 2011, and was replaced by a new science centre called Telus Spark. The new science centre is located on a 15-acre (61,000 m2) site at 220 St. Georges Drive NW in Nose Creek Valley, north of the Calgary Zoo. Telus Spark opened on October 29, 2011.
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Telus World of Science – Calgary originally opened as the Calgary Centennial Planetarium on July 1, 1967. In 1983 the Calgary Science Centre Society began a bid to bring a science centre to Calgary and in 1987 they received an operating agreement that would transform the planetarium into the Calgary Science Centre. The Calgary Science Centre was renamed Telus World of Science – Calgary after a $9 Million donation from Telus Corporation on April 27, 2005.[1]
Telus World of Science – Calgary hosts astronomy courses, school programs, youth programs, sleepovers, birthday parties, and various spring and summer science and art camps. From 2010 to 2011, the Telus World of Science hosted three traveling exhibitions which converted the whole of the building, with the exception of the Creative Kids Museum. The last exhibition closed June 27, 2011 when the 11th Street location was closed permanently.
In 2006 the Creative Kids Museum was chosen as the City of Calgary’s celebratory project for Alberta’s Centennial. Krista Schlosser, Founding President of the Creative Kids Museum, wanted to create a place for children to expand their minds. The Creative Kids Museum is the first children’s museum in western Canada. There are five permanent exhibit areas ("Mindscapes," "Theatre," "Perception," "Scribble Dee Dee" and "Sound and Music") representing art, drama, music and visual arts. Literature is represented throughout. Every few weeks, a different local artist demonstrates their artistic talents.
The Discovery Dome Theatre is a giant dome screen. It is a space for in-house productions for school programs, and at least three large format feature films are shown there each year. The Discovery Dome Theatre is also used to simulate the nighttime sky for astronomy courses.
WOWTown was an exhibition hall which had 4,000 square feet (370 m2) of space oriented towards children ages 3 to 7. Children took part in activities such as crawling, building, using pulleys and wheels, moving sailboats in a play stream, making rubbings and observing a real bee hive in action. WOWTown, along with other displays and exhibits, was removed in 2010 in order to display travelling exhibitions before the closing of the 11th Street location.
The Amazement Park is an outdoor interactive playground.
The exhibits teach children how to be a human sundial, lift a 320 kg globe, become a human bobsled, and create a musical rumble.
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