saturday science
Last Saturday J had a corporate pass to the Singapore Science Centre, so we took The Bun on a visit there. I haven't been there in decades, and the place has really had an overhaul! There's a water play area, a kinetic playground, many new themed exhibits, and an annexe expansion. (It would have been nice for them to have an F&B outlet that wasn't McDonald's, though.) Many of the scientific and mathematical concepts are far beyond The Bun's grasp at the moment, but he had a lot of fun fiddling around with the interactive exhibits and pushing the various buttons on them.
Some of the more memorable exhibits: sitting in a mock-up living room to feel what an earthquake would feel like; watching electric bolts pulsate like lightning during a Tesla coil demonstration; a heartrate monitor that transmitted your pulse as a series of beats on a drum, and of course all of the live exhibits (fish, small mammals, and the famous hatching chicks). I enjoyed the refresher course on science, what I could get out of it while wrangling The Bun, anyway! The math section made my brain hurt though, I really don't have an aptitude for numerical concepts at all. Too bad we didn't bring The Bun's swim stuff so that he could play with the water exhibits, which all looked very fun; but it turned out to be a rainy day anyway.
Optical illusions
I loved science when I was a little kid (still do) and was always happy to go to the Science Centre. One highlight was watching chicks hatch from their eggs inside a large incubator. It used to be located at the central atrium right next to the entrance and when we visited on Saturday I thought they had removed it, but we finally found it in a small corner near the Eco Garden. Too bad they didn't keep the exhibit where white mice lived and ran around underwater.
Hatching chicks - it was always so fun to see one finally break out of its shell!
Back then, I also vividly remember watching an explicit video of a woman giving birth. It was really eye-opening because it was filmed in such a straight-on manner - this would be in the mid-1980s. After watching it I hounded my mother for quite some time trying to get the facts straight - it came out through there? The head always comes out first? But how?! etc. I am guessing they removed the video because it's pretty graphic and potentially offensive, especially to people who are not prepared to see it, but it is also after all a fact of life and (to me, back then and today) there is nothing wrong with it.
Anyway, there are plenty of new and exciting exhibits to fiddle with now. I'm sure we'll be back again and again as The Bun grows up; schools always organise plenty of visits here too. One night soon we'll go check out the Observatory - not that The Bun will properly appreciate it, but J and I would!
Some of the more memorable exhibits: sitting in a mock-up living room to feel what an earthquake would feel like; watching electric bolts pulsate like lightning during a Tesla coil demonstration; a heartrate monitor that transmitted your pulse as a series of beats on a drum, and of course all of the live exhibits (fish, small mammals, and the famous hatching chicks). I enjoyed the refresher course on science, what I could get out of it while wrangling The Bun, anyway! The math section made my brain hurt though, I really don't have an aptitude for numerical concepts at all. Too bad we didn't bring The Bun's swim stuff so that he could play with the water exhibits, which all looked very fun; but it turned out to be a rainy day anyway.
Optical illusions
I loved science when I was a little kid (still do) and was always happy to go to the Science Centre. One highlight was watching chicks hatch from their eggs inside a large incubator. It used to be located at the central atrium right next to the entrance and when we visited on Saturday I thought they had removed it, but we finally found it in a small corner near the Eco Garden. Too bad they didn't keep the exhibit where white mice lived and ran around underwater.
Hatching chicks - it was always so fun to see one finally break out of its shell!
Back then, I also vividly remember watching an explicit video of a woman giving birth. It was really eye-opening because it was filmed in such a straight-on manner - this would be in the mid-1980s. After watching it I hounded my mother for quite some time trying to get the facts straight - it came out through there? The head always comes out first? But how?! etc. I am guessing they removed the video because it's pretty graphic and potentially offensive, especially to people who are not prepared to see it, but it is also after all a fact of life and (to me, back then and today) there is nothing wrong with it.
Anyway, there are plenty of new and exciting exhibits to fiddle with now. I'm sure we'll be back again and again as The Bun grows up; schools always organise plenty of visits here too. One night soon we'll go check out the Observatory - not that The Bun will properly appreciate it, but J and I would!