Creating and curating Science experiences has been something that’s on my 2020s to-do list. Hoping to make a dent this decade in this “Science is fun” space. Had an opportunity to head to the Science Museum here in Chennai last month. Loved the planetarium show. Luckily got 10.45 AM English show tickets. Reaching at 10 AM wasn’t enough. There were close to 400 school kids already queued up and waiting for their turn to go around the museum. Had taken the full package – Halls of Science, Planetarium, Science on a Sphere, 3D show and Science Park (? – not sure which was the 5th one).
Was keen on the Science on a Sphere exhibit as well. As it is just about 2 months old. It was inaugurated in November 2019. Each show on the Science on a sphere is about 10 mins long. But need to make sure one reaches early to watch the show taking into account a substantial yet reasonable wait time. As the show accommodates close to 50-70 children at a time. So each school that brings in kids would take 4-5 turns to finish watching it. Unlike planetarium that could host more viewers.
Started off with Hall of Science as had a good 30 mins before the planetarium show. Few of the exhibits were broken. For many of them had to switch on the devices to experience the science and magic it had to show. There is one Virtual Harp. Loved it! It had a series of light emitters rods lined on the bottom and corresponding receivers lined on the roof of the exhibit. By waving ones palm through the harp you could play a note. Few of the notes were malfunctioning. But most worked. And you could play a fair melody with 5 notes 😉 Both kids and adults would enjoy this exhibit. Adjacent to it was an exhibit that showed how a rotating wheel creates an illusion that it is rotating counter-clockwise as it moves faster.
Moved on to the Ocean gallery. This one is more for the grown ups. As most of the exhibits were text and images. Not much for kids here. There are a few ship models that are placed at a height were a 3-4 feet tall kid can peep into and wonder how ships work? The others not so much. In fact there’s a beautiful exhibit to give a relative measure on how deep the Pacific trench is!? It is a good exhibit to spend time and soak in how immensely fragile land is and how untamed the oceans are?
It was close to 10.35 AM by now. Headed to the Planetarium. Planetarium experience was incredible to say the least. Had a quick refresher on the various missions of humans searching for alternate homes, other planet forms and satellites in the solar system. One such satellite of Jupiter is called Io. Would explain its significance a bit later.. The show lasted about 45 mins. As one walks out of the planetarium, on the left hand side is a list of upcoming solar eclipses and lunar eclipses. Tad disappointed that there are very few Total solar eclipses crossing Tamil Nadu or India in the immediate decade or two. Would love to have a feature that listed when the next comets or meteorite showers are expected? Once one exits the Planetarium campus there is the older Zeiss universal planetarium projector on display. It was installed in 1988 and was dismantled recently in 2018. Served a good 30 years! There now is a smaller and niftier Japanese Digital planetarium projector that the operator can maneuver from a distance. Close to 70-80 kids were watching the show and you could hear the collective ahs, oohs and wows from them. Their fear when planets were engulfed by Red giant stars. Their joy as they spotted similar life forms in distant solar systems. And their hope in building a future!
I walked out feeling insignificant in this giant scheme of life and yet again precious enough to be alive and have a chance to live on planet earth. Surreal. Alive.
Hall of Space and Nuclear energy were good as well. There is an interesting interactive in the Hall of Nuclear Energy. It allows you to design and build your own atom. You would have to specify the number of protons, electrons and neutrons. Verify if the structure is feasible. The interactive would then guide you through how stable the atom is and suggest adding protons, electrons or neutrons to stabilise it. And once you finally arrive at a stable atom you would have learnt which atom you built. I tried with Helium (2,2,2) and Carbon (6,6,6). Pressing 92 + 92 + 143 odd times to build a Uranium 235 atom or a heavier atom would have warranted for more effort ! 😀
Towards the exit there is another exhibit has cylinder with lines of it. There is a guitar with three strings overlaid on it. The strings are connected to a foot pedal. One has to give the cylinder a good spin, press the foot pedal to keep the strings tense and pluck all the three strings together. Each vibrating string then forms different wave patterns based on their thickness and how much energy is left in them since they were plucked. You could see that the wavelengths and amplitudes are different. There is a good scope of a session on waves and wave patterns that an instructor could spin around them. Did you know wavelength in Tamil is “alai neelam”? Just a plain literal translation.
While waiting for the Science on a sphere show, walked through a few of the mathematics exhibits. Liked the standard one on normal distribution of objects when there is an equal chance of falling towards pass or fail. Also the one in which the conical / circular object seemingly moves up to be more stable. There was one exhibit that when you spin it hard enough had a vortex as water drains out to the bottom container.
Finally got a chance to watch the Science on a sphere show. Here in the entire show was filled with kids aged 6, their teachers and us. The operator started off the show with a series of display : moons, planets and sun on the sphere. He then asked the kids to guess their names. Most of them they guessed it right – Mars, Venus, Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Sun, Moon, Earth and so on. One such form was the moon of Jupiter – Io. Once it came up, kids were confused as to what it was? Operator then wrongly called it out as Europa and then rectified that it was Io. In Tamil the phrase was something like this: “Jupiter oda moon Europa, ayyo sorry Io. Jupiter oda moon Io” and the kids collectively questioned “Ayyo-va?”. This interaction was hilarious. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term “ayyo”, it can mean different things – often it means a sigh of despair or cry of disappointment .. may be “Uh oh”. So when the moon was called “Io”, kids heard it as “Ayyo” and were visibly confused as to why someone would name some important object in space after a word that meant disappointment. I understand the kids, but then it also went on to illustrate how engaged the kids were with the learning. These were kids aged 6, they have just started formal school post kindergarten stage. To question is the basic essence of any such science activity. To arouse ones curiosity is the larger intent behind such interactions. So purpose fulfilled.
For later thought: Most exhibits lacked explanation. Unless you were accompanied by someone who knew the purpose of each exhibit, science / maths behind it one wouldn’t pause to understand. Wondered if we could carve out separate pathways for kids aged 6-9 to enjoy? Because for them Science is pure magic. For kids aged 10 – 13 they do recognize some components of Science in way things work around them. They could have a different pathway. Similarly for kids aged 14 – 16, adults 17 and above could be the other categories. Until then parents, akkas and annas, brush up your science, take time out to and go discover the universe around you with kids and grown-ups alike. It is a huge favour that you do to build our collective futures.
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