Mega Magna

WORKERS in bright-yellow hard hats are beavering away, moving bucketloads of stones in wheelbarrows and trying to clear a pile of rubble with a digger.

Welcome to Magna, the Lottery-funded science adventure centre, on the border of Sheffield and Rotherham, which opened to the public this week.

More than £40 million has been spent recasting a former steel foundry into a hi-tech adventure playground fit for the 21st century.

And if you're thinking all that work going on in the basement is yet another example of a millennium project running behind schedule, you'd be wrong. This is the 'earth pavilion' which along with the fire, air and water pavilions make up the four activity zones at Magna.

In the earth section, young visitors can don protective clothing and play at being Bob The Builder.

It all looks like the inside of a mine. Rocks tumble from an excavation belt into mini red wheelbarrows, which the children push around the site. There's a video clip of men preparing to blow up a quarry. After you watch them charge the explosives, a button flashes next to a detonation plunger, which children can push down and watch in awe as the quarry blows up on the big screen.

For the less destructive, there's a giant sand pit full of toy trucks, buckets and spades.

Then there are the diggers, inviting you to sit in the cab and see how many rocks you can manoeuvre in a minute. A display panel plots your progress - and points out how well the professionals do it: a skilled operator can shift 1,200kg of rock a minute, that's one bucketful every ten seconds.

Amazing facts abound at Magna. And while your family may not emerge as would-be Einsteins, you should come away knowing a thing or two more about basic principles of science.

Take the air pavilion, for instance. Housed in a giant airship suspended from the 100 foot high roof of the cathedral-like former steelworks, it allows you to find out about tornadoes, pollution, and flight with the accent on self-discovery and fun.

Place your hands in some gloves inside a wind machine and sense what it feels like to take off. Blow air into a giant corn field and see the patterns it makes. Or see if you can make a tune on some unusual musical instruments.

Each activity is linked to an elemental scientific principle, which is clearly explained on notice boards throughout each pavilion.

The smell of kerosene is all-powerful as you enter the fire zone. It fuels the amazing fire tornado, which pirouettes in a fiery red glow at ten-minute intervals. While waiting for it to re-ignite, you can get to grips with the concept of conductivity by working out why it is that wood and rubber emit the same temperature yet feel so different to touch.

A pictorial temperature chart also puts into perspective the nature of heat. It starts at minus 273 degrees Celsius, which is as cold as it gets, where all movement is stilled, all energy spent. It ends at 5400 degrees Celsius: the surface of the sun and the hottest place known to man. In between we learn that steel melts at 1538C and that chips fry at 180C.

The entrance to the water pavilion is an experience in itself. You feel as if you're walking on water thanks to a clever ensemble of video footage of waterfalls on the wall and platforms of water at shoulder-level bordering the pathway.

Once inside the pavilion, the scope for getting wet increases. A giant waterwheel dominates the display, where children are encouraged to get their hands wet in generating electricity from wave power and working out how locks work to help boats navigate uneven waterways.

Another big draw is the giant water pistols, which are filled up using a pumping system then fired at a range of objects. I'm not too sure what the science is here, but it's definitely a lot of fun.

Which is precisely the aim of Magna. It hopes its hands-on activities will turn children on to science by linking learning with having a damn good time. And there is no doubt that the region's newest visitor attraction amounts to a grand day out for all the family.

The sheer scale of the place and the achievements of the architects in transforming this enormous melting shop into a futuristic fun park is awe inspiring.

And there's no shirking away from the history of the site. This building was once the largest melting shop in Europe and artefacts from the former steel works act as a backdrop for the new exhibit. Hulking hooks hang from the roof like giant upside down question marks, above now-derelict vats where metal would have been melted down.

One word of warning: without the heat from the blast furnaces, it's rather chilly inside, so wrap up warm for a visit.

There are two audio visual displays about the steel-making process, which are as evocative as they are informative: giving a sense of this building's past, of its achievement in producing steel to see a nation through two world wars, of a golden age when more than 10,000 people were employed at the plant.

Magna pulls off a considerable feat in at once celebrating that industrial past, while looking ahead to the future and inspiring young people about the wonders of science and technology.

Its launch comes at a difficult time. Many so-called millennium attractions have struggled to succeed. But hopes are high for Magna. Just one mile away from the shopping mecca of Meadowhall, a joint marketing strategy is already in place to try to attract shoppers to the new centre.

Magna estimates it needs around 300,000 visitors a year. Meadowhall enjoys 30 million visits a year. If Magna is able to convert just one per cent of those visitors, then its target will be reached.

North and East Yorkshire are within its reach, as Magna will be relying on visitors who live within a two-hour-drive.

Already the omens are good. Magna, which means great in Latin, has been receiving rave reviews in the media. For once, this is a millennium attraction which lives up to its name.

Fact File:

- Magna, Templeborough, Sheffield Road, Rotherham. Telephone: 01709 720002. Online: www.magnatrust.org.uk

- By road: take exit 34 of the M1 and follow signs for Magna. Free parking.

- Open every day from 10am-5pm except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

- Prices: £5.99 adult; £4.50 child (under fives go free); family of four £17.99. Phone for details of group of school admissions.

- There is a reasonably-priced cafe and licensed restaurant on site and an adventure playground for children outside.