Challenges for scientific and technical educationLike each year at this time, schools are fixing their timetables and finalising the year's school trips. Especially now, at a time when new cultural and social realities have to be attended to, and when the task of education has become more complex, it is increasingly necessary for these informal activities to be complementary to the school curriculum rather than just play and recreation. The strengthening of a rich and high-quality educational offering has been one of mNACTEC's priorities from the start, which explains why a visit to the museums in the Regional System has become “almost obligatory” for schools

22 museums for schools
The latest offering, 22 Museums for Schools , for the 2007/8 academic year has been boosted with the inclusion of new centres and, whilst being more extensive, also represents a stronger educational package. It is the result of the joint work of the educational action, science, innovation and environment programmes (common to all the museums in the National Museum of Science and Technology's Regional System) and the individual value added to the whole by each museum's specialism. In this way, it becomes possible for global technology and science to reach the local context.
The mNACTEC Regional System offers new and plentiful educational proposals for the newly started academic year like, for example, The Sun Terrace –a school workshop which focuses its studies exclusively on that star using a combination of classic equipment and other, more innovative, technologies. Nevertheless, mNACTEC still retains those activities and workshops that have proved their educational worth over the years. All in all, mNACTEC offers a range of activities to meet the educational needs of children from three to eighteen years of age, along with the expectations of teachers who wish to work, directly or indirectly, with aspects of the school curriculum outside the classroom. The success of mNACTEC's guided visits, workshops and educational activities lies in the fact that it knows how to take advantage of the instrumental value of Catalonia's industrial heritage in the teaching-learning process through active and engaged participation. mNACTEC's range of educational activities can also be found on the new Regional System website ( www.mnactec.cat ), which needs to facilitate better access by –and communication with– teachers. Information about the new activities and a site search engine can be found there, along with a space offering services to teachers which, apart from including the usual educational and informational activities in support of the task of teaching, also allows a new, more fluid, communication channel to be opened up, with the aim of establishing a forum for shared experience within the educational environment.

The Can Sanglas Fontaine turbine, one of the first hydraulic motors installed in the basin of the mid-section of the river Ter, has started working again. The installation of the turbine, made by the engineering firm Planas from Girona, was, to a great extent, behind the architectural evolution of this space, which is emblematic of Manlleu and its canal. Named Got-a-perxa by the men running the turbine, it stopped working during the floods of 1940; floods that left the industrial canal in ruins.
The restoration work has been carried out in three different areas: civil-engineering works (entrances and exits for the water, the automated raising and lowering of sluice gates, and walls), restoring the machinery and preparing the location. The Ter Industrial Museum, in restarting the turbine, has restored Can Sanglas' beating heart; in this case, however, for the purposes of education and demonstration. Visitors will be able to observe for themselves how the force of water operates the turbine at one of the most representative sites of both Catalan manufacturing and of the industrial development of inland Catalonia, which came about thanks to the force of rivers like the Ter and the Llobregat.

Using a 1m high waterfall, this motor generates 10cv. The resulting force was used to operate the factory's different spinning machines.

The second phase of the restoration of the Ecomuseu-Farinera at Castelló d'Empúries was completed this September after almost a year of work. The building work was carried out on the Casal, a building of a different origin that was joined to the mill itself at the beginning of the 20 th century.

The work focused on restoring the façades and roof, and preparing the ground floor for public use. The restoration of the façades was based on the notion of distinguishing between the two original buildings on the site and the section that unites them, which received different treatment. This work has allowed us to give the site its definitive, external aspect, recovering its original, architectural values and improving its relationship with its immediate environment. With respect to the roofing, given that the buildings have different origins and have experienced building work at various times, the intention was to simplify spaces and give unity to the sloping roof, as well as restoring some parts of the tiling in poor condition.
Inside the building, work took place mainly on the ground floor, allowing continuity with the factory's already restored ground floor to be created. The intention is to transform this part of the site into the new entrance and visitor reception area, and create a series of spaces that will allow the Ecomuseu to offer new services to the general public: a multi-purpose space that will be equipped as an audiovisual area and where, for the time being, workshops can also be given. Even though the temporary exhibition hall will not be restored until the third phase of work, it has proved suitable as it is. Indeed, we used the space to preview the exhibition From Gorgot Mill to Dou Mill: a Tour Round the Flour Mills of Alt Empordà . Finally, completing the list of restored spaces are the shop and public toilets, as well as the workshop for museum staff.
From Gorgot Mill to Dou Mill : a Tour Round the Flour Mills of Alt Empordà , a new temporary exhibition that opened at the end of November, takes the visitor on a tour round these ingenious reminders of medieval tradition scattered across our region, which have come down to us as landmarks in the countryside; witnesses to history and the lives of many generations.

More than a hundred vehicles were photographed in front of the large mural painted by Àlex Pallí, Luis Trullenque and Pablo Rey at the Salvador Claret Classic Car Collection at Sils on 15 th and 16 th of September in order to celebrate Automobile Heritage Weekend. The event consisted of numerous activities all over the country involving the promotion of classic cars (floral tributes, free entrance to various car museums, guided tours and lectures on the history of automobiles) during which, officially, 1,075 items (and hundreds more unofficially) were exhibited.
Automobile Heritage Weekend was held for the first time in Spain, thanks to the work of FEVA (Spanish Vintage Car Federation), which took its lead from the initiative begun by the French Federation of Classic Vehicles, and which is soon to be followed by many other federations all over Europe.

In making an evaluation of health and safety at work, the Association –as the organisation responsible for mNACTEC's guided tours, educational workshops and the summer and winter workshops– ascertained that one of the points to work on, as far as museum instructors were concerned was the voice. It was decided to hold a course in the last week of June, when there were no school groups visiting and the summer workshops had not yet begun. It was a very dynamic course, with role plays, theatre, etc. The areas worked on in the course were: The importance of oral communication; The voice: a medium for education; Voice training: how to use it, intonation, breathing, silence…; Oral language and fundamental principles: clarity, precision, being specific, humour, images, metaphors…; and Techniques, practical exercises and advice for voice training.
The results were excellent. Apart from discovering and learning about the importance of breathing, posture and intonation, there has been a very positive knock-on effect: the team's cohesion. We can state that the museum instructors have got to know each other a bit better, have learnt knew things and, what's more, enjoyed themselves!

The directors of museums, science centres and planetariums met, as usual each year, to make presentations and debate the challenges and new trends in Spanish and Portuguese scientific museology. The Science and Water Museum in Murcia was chosen for this, the 11 th , meeting, which was held on 14 th , 15 th and 16 th September.
Apart from the usual presentations of new spaces, projects and centres, this year the meeting highlighted the need to create a Spanish science and technology museums network that would encourage the participation of museums in joint projects and facilitate coordination between them. The network would, amongst other functions, also monitor the optimum management of resources for training professionals and the rigorous evaluation of programmes and exhibitions at a national level.

Districts on the Mining Route such as Saldes, Vallcebre, Fígols, Cercs and Guardiola de Berguedà now have at their disposal a new entertaining way for visitors to enjoy nature and get to know their landscape and their historical and industrial heritage. With a capacity for 56 passengers, the Berguedà Green Trailer (pulled by a John Deere 4x4, 8-tonne tractor equipped with pneumatic suspension that guarantees a comfortable ride over unpaved paths) offers a comfortable and entertaining trip.
The new attraction offers three different routes that should satisfy the tastes of everyone. The fixed routes offer the visitor four specific year-round itineraries; the discovering Alt Berguedà routes offer 11 guided tours, arranged in advance, that allow visitors to get to know various places of great interest in the area; and, finally, the à la carte routes allow visitors to design their own itinerary and its duration at a made-to-measure price.

The Museum has always been sure to offer an educational programme that makes sense and takes advantage of Cercs' mining and palaeontological heritage. Thanks to the product-improvement programme subsidised by the Catalan Industrial Tourism Network (XATIC), this year it has been possible to hold different events along these lines. The update programme for the exhibition hall's texts has been prepared, and family-oriented material has been created (in four languages). Our own website has also been launched, entitled Journey to the Centre of the Earth , which introduces the permanent exhibition (life in the industrial colony, the owner, rebellion, transport, the mine, etc.), activities (workshops, guided tours to the power station and the Baells reservoir), and highlights a visit to the archaeological site at Fumanya.
www.mmcercs.cat

Based on the cooperation between the Berguedà region and the French department Ariège on the Camí dels Bon Homes (the Cathars' migration route across the Pyrenees), the two districts have launched a new cooperation project that foresees the creation of walking routes promoting those places linked to industrial tourism in the two regions. This proposal for cultural tourism, looking at the factors that have made history and brought both wealth and renown to the regions, consists of: the mining route and the textile industry route with a complementary offering of museums, companies and workshops open to visits, handicraft activities, hotels, restaurants, bed and breakfast in rural houses, campsites and festivals.
It is a joint proposal by the two regions which believe in developing cultural tourism in the context of a Europe without frontiers and with extraordinarily increased mobility. The project has brought an agreement from tourist agencies in Berguedà and Ariège and is being developed in the framework of a common quality and environmental management plan.

From October 10 – November 18 2007 the Igualada Leather and Anoia Regional Museum uncovers an unknown and remote part of that region. Some 50 million years ago the climate was warmer: in tropical seas lived sharks and other now extinct animals. The changes that have taken place would mean nothing to us if we did not know how to interpret the testimony of some extraordinary witnesses: fossils. On display in this exhibition is an exceptional collection of the fossil record of the Eocene period in the Anoia region taken from the museum's archive.
The exhibition is supported by educational and informational activities, such as guided tours and demonstrations, which clarify some of the main points concerning Anoia's geology and palaeontology.

As in every year since 2001, this autumn sees the celebration of the 6 th Mechanical Inventions Show at Sils. This fun and festive event organised by the Salvador Claret Classic Car Collection, will take place on 4 th November during Science Week 2007. Visitors can enjoy a working demonstration of the most varied inventions and curios.