The Laboratory Centers of Natural Sciences (Ε.Κ.Φ.Ε. / EKFE) are supportive educational structures whose main objective is to assist the laboratory teaching of Natural Sciences in Secondary and Primary Education.

Specifically, the Laboratory Centre of Natural Sciences of Chania is located in the Acrotiri High School (Lyceum) complex. The venue is designed in order to support training activities in the form of lectures or workshops while at the same time it hosts a temporary exhibition of old laboratory instruments and devices collected from schools of the Chania prefecture. Its laboratory equipment is mainly borrowed from the former “Polykladiko Senior High School” and the operation of its computers is based almost exclusively on open and free software.

The activities of the Laboratory Centre of Natural Sciences of Chania include:

• Students educational visits and teaching through experimental methods, with particular emphasis on Primary Education.
• Primary and Secondary Teacher Training specializing in Natural Sciences teaching methods and techniques. The training sessions, mainly in the form of hands-on laboratory activities, take place in two-hour meetings or in one-day conferences during or after school working hours.
• Organizing and supporting the Science laboratories of Schools of Chania prefecture.
• Creation of educational materials, participation and presentations at conferences.
• Coordination of activities in which different schools cooperate on a Natural Sciences project.
• Afternoon educational meetings and “science café”, on topics broader than those of Natural Sciences.
• Co-organizing / supporting student laboratory competitions (EUSO, student robotics contest, construction contest).
• Co-organizing modern Physics courses and workshops (masterclasses, virtual visits to research centers, lectures).
• Organizing a public, annual two-day conference on Natural Sciences, with wide participation of students from schools from the whole Chania prefecture and lecturers with great resonance for a wide audience.