Rovaniemi science centre Pilke to close, leaving gap for schools

Finland’s Metsähallitus will close the Pilke science centre and its customer service point in Rovaniemi in early October, Yle reports. The closures are intended to produce annual savings of about 300,000 euros.

Pilke, which opened in 2010, is the only forest-themed science centre in northern Finland. The decision will also end school visits to its exhibition, while savings will be made on maintaining and renewing the exhibition and customer services will increasingly move online.

A school group from Pudasjärvi travelled 155 kilometres to visit the centre. Teacher Veera Ivola said the pupils especially enjoyed a hunting game, a large forest machine they could climb into and a forest machine simulator.

“In a science centre like this, where pupils get to do things themselves, they remember them much better than when they sit in a classroom, look at a book and read,” Ivola said.

Pupil Martti Liikanen said he had learned at Pilke that forests are important in many ways, including because they provide materials for paper and cardboard.

Ivola said the closure would leave a gap in schools’ opportunities to provide this kind of hands-on learning. Metsähallitus plans to offer workshops, school visits, forest days and other events at schools instead, but she said schools would not have the same equipment or facilities.

Laura Kuusisto, a team manager at Metsähallitus, said Pilke’s cooperation with schools and educational institutions had been important and that its closure was a major loss locally.

Finland has 13 other science centres and museums in addition to Pilke. The Lusto forest museum in Punkaharju is the only one among them with a clear focus on forests.