Science Works Museum

Last Wednesday we visited the Science Works Museum (above), about 20 minutes outside of the city. It was so much fun! They had a giant sundial (above) outside, which automatically is a sign of coolness.

The first part of the museum was about the science of houses. There was some science, but most of the exhibit was just everyday things in huge/silly form. There was an upside down room (above), and a humongous couch (above). Joe got to be the main course of a meal (above). They had a pretty funny take on what actually lives inside our beds, with a mobile hanging above a bed made of dust mites (above).

The next major exhibit was an area all about sports (above). There were lots of interactive things here, from a virtual wheelchair race (above), to an Aussie Rules Football throwing area (above), to a 3-D penalty kick saving contest (above), to a rock climbing wall (above). There was also a netball net that you could test your aim with. Netball is an Australian version of basketball played primarily by girls that uses a net with no backboard (above). There was a canoeing section, where we re-enacted a famous painting (above). In the sports section there were a whole bunch of ways to test your fitness. They had height and weight measurements, strength tests, hand-eye coordination, flexibility tests, and a vertical jump tester (above). There was also a sprinting test (above), where you could measure your time against Aboriginal Olympian Cathy Freeman.

The coolest part was a traveling exhibit called “How to Make a Monster” (above), about the technology behind animatronic animals in movies. Sadly, due to copyright, I couldn’t take any pictures inside. They had a huge crocodile from the Peter Pan re-make that you could control (above, pic from the website), among several other animals from other movies. You could control their eyes, jaw, head, tail, arms, etc. It really gave me an appreciation for the skill of the people who control these electronic animals. The exhibit also explained how the animals were made, which is truly an incredible process. The short version of the process is that a sculptor creates the animal in clay, a mould is created from the clay, filled with the bendy plastic material to make the skin, and then fitted around the metal controls. It was so cool.

That day totally satisfied my inner child. :-D