Mercan Becomes the Go-To Destination for Children During the Summer Holiday

At Mercan, where every detail has been thoughtfully designed so that children can grow up with an awareness of science and nature, the “Little Inventors,” “Robotic Coding,” and “Summer School” workshops have kicked off for the summer holiday. Embarking on its journey with the motto “Explore, Learn, and Create,” Mercan Science Center continues to hold the title of Turkey’s first and only science center focused on climate and environmental themes. With its fun and educational activities, the center makes summer vacation even more enjoyable and takes children on an educational journey of discovery.

Students reinforce what they learn through both visual and hands-on experiences and have the opportunity to participate in various workshops related to the topics they explore. Through these workshops, children not only gain awareness of issues such as climate change, environmental pollution, renewable energy sources, global warming, and biodiversity, but also learn robotic coding, keeping up with the digital age.

Ezici: “Our Summer School Program Launched with Three Workshop Tracks”

Announcing the start of the Summer School program as schools went on break, Duygu Ezici, Head of the Mercan 100th Year Climate and Environmental Science Center, said:
“Our summer school was launched with three different workshop tracks. The first one is robotic coding. In this workshop, primary school students are taught game design. Middle school students learn programming and coding with Arduino. We also have our Little Inventors Workshop, where we introduce students to the themes of our science center. Based on the motto ‘Education begins at an early age,’ we conduct activities on topics such as climate and environment, zero waste, and recycling. In the Summer School, we offer a blend of all our workshops, covering climate and environment, marine life, science, astronomy and space, and disaster education.”
She added that the two-week program is held twice a week.

Ezici also noted the high demand for the center, saying:
“Our instructors and we are very grateful for the interest from our visitors. As a science center, we are committed to always being there to help children explore science.”

She mentioned that event announcements are shared on the Metropolitan Municipality’s social media accounts and on the website https://www.mersinbilimmerkezi.com, emphasizing that registrations for July are fully booked and encouraging those interested in August sessions to stay tuned.

Children Enjoy Summer at Mercan While Learning and Having Fun

Açelya Bilaydın, one of the students who visited Mercan and participated in the workshops, said she learned about marine life and gave a social message:
“We need to keep the seas clean for the animals to live. No one should throw garbage into the sea.”

Egemen Akbaş, who learned how to make a flashing light system in the robotics workshop, shared his experience:
“This is my first time here. I enjoy learning new things. I plan to keep coming and recommend it to everyone. Your mind fills with knowledge, and you learn about technology. In the future, everything will be built on technology.”

İlkimsu Urgun, who found out about Mercan on social media, said:
“I thought this center would be a great place for self-development. We are very thankful to Mayor Vahap for offering us such an opportunity.”

Mehmet Ali Keklik emphasized that he had found a hobby he could enjoy with interest, saying:
“I enjoy working with robotic coding. I learned new things here as well.”
Recommending the center to all children, Keklik added:
“We’re learning about future technologies. It’s a great project that teaches people so much. We thank Mayor Vahap for bringing us this opportunity.”

For the news video:

https://youtu.be/cfJLYdniSho