Magna Science Adventure Centre



The Magna Science Adventure Centre is an educational visitor attraction, appealing primarily to children, located in the former Templeborough steelworks in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England.

Location
The site used to be home to the Steel, Peech and Tozer steelworks (also known as Steelos). In 50 AD it was the site of the Templeborough Roman fort.

The principal exhibits are divided into four pavilions: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. There is also an outdoor Sci-Tek play area, and Aqua-Tek water play area.

The 1/3 mile long site is often used for staging events, conferences and performances. It won the Enjoy England Gold Award for Business Tourism in 2006.

Development
The development, funding and building process was led by Stephen Feber, who selected the design team, led by architects WilkinsonEyre and exhibition designers Event Communications. Tim Caulton directed exhibition development. Magna's exhibitions won the Best Exhibition category at the 2002 Design Week Awards. The Centre won the 2001 RIBA Stirling Prize for its architects Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Mott MacDonald and Buro Happold's use of space in the old steelworks.

The Big Melt


Every hour, Magna holds a display called "The Big Melt". Its purpose is to demonstrate how steel was made in an electric arc furnace until the steelworks closed in 1993. A furnace is imitated with fog, spark, flame and smoke machines, loudspeakers, lights, and blasts of rapidly burning propane which are ignited at appropriate points in the show. The show can be repeated up to four times an hour, but, in practice, it is usually run once an hour or twice an hour if visitor numbers are very high.

Real Ale Festival
Since 2011, the centre has been home to the annual Rotherham Real Ale and Music Festival. The festival was previously held at Oakwood Technology College. Money raised from the festival is donated to local charities.