Science for Everyone

The UP Faculty of Science’s Popular Science Centre

Fort Science, the interactive science museum, occupies the former Grand Artillery Depot building within the historic Crown Fortress complex in the town centre of Olomouc. This is where we bring together Palacký University students and employees interested in popular science and communications as well as furthering the good name of their alma mater.

Four interactive hands-on expositions are the mainstays of Fort Science: Walk into History, Logic in a Nutshell, Living Water, and Light and Darkness; plus a seven-metre dome housing a digital planetarium. The centre also includes a chemistry lab, a creative workshop, and the UPlab futures workshop located in the nearby spaces of UP Science and Technology Park. Here, in cooperation with private companies and other partners, we offer modern technologies such as 3D printing, AI, robots, and more to schools and the general public.

In addition to the open exhibition spaces and popular science-themed events, we also focus on recreational activities for youths in the form of science clubs and day camps, informal educational programmes for nursery, elementary, and middle schools, and for seniors. UP students carry out training, part-time jobs, and internships here. The centre also runs the UP Children’s University. Fort Science offers university divisions and facilities as well as external partners not only premises for diverse formats of presentations including popular scientific research and technologies, but also exclusive halls with 250-person capacity for conferences and social events.

Academia Film Olomouc (AFO) - International Festival of Popular Science Documentary Films - is one of the most significant popular science film festivals in Europe. AFO's objective is to present science as an attractive, dynamic, and diverse sphere, by means of films mapping various disciplines in natural science, the humanities, and social science. Hundreds of documentary films and television programmes compete in a variety of programme sections every year, traditionally including films produced by renowned stations such as BBC, The Discovery Channel, and National Geographic.

The international festival of science documentary films has been organised by Palacký University Olomouc since 1966. In the course of the years, the small-scale private meeting has transformed into one of the biggest scientific events in Europe. It is the only festival in the Czech Republic, which provided a space for a get-together of such famous scientists as evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro and philosopher and AI theorist Susan Schneider.

Programme of the festival focuses on progressive factual films and documentary films, discussions and lectures exploring various hot topics. From research of distant planets, Earth’s oceans and global warming through the development of robotics and artificial intelligence all the way to the position of women in science and society or life online and addictions.

The driving force behind the festival organisation is mostly current and former students of Palacký University. Organising the festival is a real challenge for the festival production team, helping with the organisation, students of the university can learn a lot and develop new skills. Thus, AFO has become not only a significant science festival on the European scale but also an established educational platform.   

Palacký University has been participating annually in this pan-European September event that aims to popularise science. The programme takes place at an interactive museum of science, Fort Science, at all individual faculties and the UP Botanical Garden. Visitors are allowed to explore laboratories and classrooms where they usually have no access. They may try various experiments or activities and find out what the UP scientists are engaged in and what results they are achieving.
www.nocvedcu.cz/en

Children's University offers a unique opportunity for pupils from 8 to 12 years to experience studying at a university, including the matriculation and graduation ceremonies. The goal is to bring science and academics closer to children and to introduce the five faculties in Olomouc. The lectures are interactive, in the form of games, with teachers trying to capture the children's attention, enabling them to lift the lid of various scientific disciplines and to lose their fear of studying. In addition to gaining new experiences and increasing their knowledge, each little student will also receive a diploma certifying their graduation from Children's University.
www.pevnostpoznani.cz/detska-univerzita

The University of the Third Age offers citizens over the age of 50 education at the highest possible level, i.e., university. It has however the character of entirely personal development, not preparation for various professions. It does not place demands on a university title. Education at the University of the Third Age represents one possibility of quality fulfilment of free time, supporting active engagement of older adults and seniors, making accessible new knowledge, learning, and skills in a suitable form. The study programme supports psychological and physical vigour, eliminating the social ostracisation of seniors, making it possible to form new friendships and overcome feelings of loneliness and uselessness.