What is AHHAA
AHHAA was established as a special project of the Department of Research and Institutional Development of Tartu University (founded in 1632). This project, however would mark now a significant breakthrough from the project stage to an independent contemporary science centre with up-to-date science communication and display possibilities.
History
AHHAA started its activities with a laser show in front of Tartu Observatory on September 1, 1997, and it has had a strong and stable development since that year. In the spring of 1998, the first educational exhibition was organized in co-operation with the Finnish Science Centre Heureka. It was the very first interactive science exhibition in Estonia, visited by 22,000 people.
The purpose of AHHAA is to introduce science to people at large. Using interactive and entertaining methods and the scientific excellence of 370-year old Tartu University, we try to overcome fear and prejudice toward learning. With the support of Tartu’s educational traditions and latest developments of information society, we hope to provide every visitor with the joy of gaining new knowledge and pleasant pastime activities.
In 1999, AHHAA organized several demonstration experiments to make science classes more interesting. On 1 September 1998, all students and teachers were greeted with a laser show again, this time in the Town Hall Square. A small exhibition of holograms was held from December 1998 to January 1999 at Old Observatory.
The second major exhibition by AHHAA – “Aha, Insects!” – was held from May to July 1999. The exhibition was organized in co-operation with The Natural History Museum in London. This exhibition was during 6 weeks visited by 60,000 people.
During the winter 2000, experiment demonstrations were organized for students. In the turn of the year, another small science exhibition was held, titled “Aha, Time!”. In addition to its core activity, AHHAA has also organized some special concerts in the Tartu Observatory. On January 3, 2000 a concert took place to celebrate the Earth’s closest position to the Sun.
The exhibition in the summer of 2000, “Aha, Human!” introduced the human being from different medical aspects. With this exhibition AHHAA continued dealing with health issues. In addition to many interactive exhibits, the science theatre and planetarium have been working. 30.000 visitors.
In 2001, “Aha, the Light!” was carried out in Tartu and Narva for about 25,000 visitors. “The Mystery of Ancient Egypt”, an interactive science exhibition from Heureka was displayed from September to February at the University main building in Tartu (20,000 visitors).
In 2002, the AHHAA Science Centre created and organized two science exhibitions, “Sweet Europe” and “Aha, Senses!” The centre continued science lectures using a portable Starlab-planetarium. The EU-exhibition aimed to present different European Union issues (e.g. history, culture, symbols etc) to a large audience of Estonia through the interactive hands-on exhibition (60.000 visitors on different events).
In 2003, “Aha, Laboratory!” was carried out in Estonian cities – not only in Tartu, but in Tallinn, Pärnu, Kuressaare and Narva as well. AHHAA Science Centre started a new practice to work all around the country and got 82.000 visitors per year to different science events, including lectures, demos, science theatre shows, Technology Day events etc. Also a special school program was developed to support the formal education curricula by science centre activities. Since 1997, more than 460.000 visitors have been visiting AHHAA events.
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History