“I like that there are so many possibilities here,” said Kornelia from the fourth grade of Elementary School No. 7 in Lomza during the opening of SOWA. The Zone of Imagination, Discovery, and Activity (Strefa Odkrywania, Wyobraźni i Aktywności – SOWA) launched at the University of Lomza. It is an initiative supported by the Copernicus Science Center and funded by the Ministry of Education and Science. Its goal is to popularize scientific curiosity, creativity, and the development of imagination for all kinds of people – from kindergarten students to senior citizens. “The SOWA Zone is not only about the fifteen exhibits that arrived at our University, but also about opportunities for cooperation in the projects we coordinate, including those carried out with partners such as the Polish Space Agency," said Robert Firmhofer, Chief Executive Officer of the Copernicus Science Center, during the grand opening of the exhibition.
SOWA features more than a dozen engaging exhibits that demonstrate the experiential nature of science, giving visitors the opportunity to experiment on their own, as well as a so-called "do-it-yourself room," with all sorts of tutorials and DIY kits containing instructions on how to perform a specific task. Every single piece is arranged in accordance with the guidelines of the Copernicus Science Center. They set to create a network of nationwide SOWA centers to develop a key to the exchange of educational experiences and carry out joint projects at the regional, national, and European levels. “SOWA will be an important place on the map of the Lomza Region and the tri-state area of Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in the context of popularization of science especially among young people from smaller towns," said Dariusz Piontkowski, Secretary of State at the Ministry.
SOWA cannot be reduced only to the number of educational exhibits, because first and foremost, it includes a number of different activities, initiatives, concepts through which you can show that science is ultimately fun. “I hope that SOWA will be a popular science initiative reaching a wide audience. And sincerely, I would like to invite all imaginative people to cooperate with us and use the SOWA resources in various activities, popularizing science, culture, and cultural animation. Our SOWA will be, or so I hope, a local mini-center of science and social activity, around which we are already planning to focus many interesting projects and a variety of people," said Prof. Dariusz Surowik, Rector of the University of Lomza during the opening ceremony of SOWA.
The SOWA Zone stationed at the University of Lomza is the only one existing at an actual university. It is already the 16th such facility in the country, with a total of thirty-two to be eventually established. They will all be connected with each other and the Copernicus Science Center altogether. “University of Lomza is an important academic center, which has been steadily developing a strong position in northeastern Poland for many, many years. SOWA is yet another prestigious element of the University, through which the experiential nature of science will be presented," said Tomasz Madras, Deputy Governor of the Podlasie Voivodeship. The mayor of Lomza, Dr. Mariusz Chrzanowski, empathized that SOWA will be an important place on the map of Lomza, a great tool for scientific experimentation, strengthening the educational potential of the City.
The biggest asset of SOWA is the opportunity of independent experimentation, discovering the laws governing the world through spontaneous curiosity, which is very natural for people of all ages. This way, participants genuinely learn that science is not just a set of facts, textbook rules, but it is actually the way we discover the world every day using our senses and analytical and synthetic thinking skills. People can visit the SOWA experiment on their own, without being given ready-made solution scenarios, and they may question the SOWA, requiring help – what counts, however, is independent action in accordance with the principle emphasized by the director of the Copernicus Science Center, Robert Firmhofer, that "we are smarter than we think."
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