Ah, Summer time! While kids know best how fun it can be during summer vacation (no school, weekly out-of-town trips, sprinkler showers, ice candies, summer workshops…), parents think otherwise. To them (or at least those with young children), summer is the time when the house is never empty nor clean. It is when the power bills shoot up to insane numbers thanks to the heat and, well, their son’s all-day running gaming console. Summer is when they shell out a wad of cash to pay for an expensive workshop. Summer is when they need to squeeze bringing their children to and fro their sports clinics into their tight schedules. If anything, summer is but a “break” for a parent.
Now if you’re one of those parents who need a momentary break, and at the same time, want to peel-off their children from the power-hogging gaming consoles, pencil in your itinerary a trip to The Mind Museum, Taguig. Not only will this family-friendly activity educate your children, it will also awaken your inner-child’s wonder– a must in hectic times such as this summer.
Open to the public since March 16, The Mind Museum is the first world-class science museum in the Philippines. By world-class, we are talking about a museum that sits on a 12,500 sqm property, dons modernistic architecture, and houses over 250 interactive stations.
There are five main galleries and two remarkable halls inside the two-storey complex:
The Hall of Philippine Science is the first area you’d run into once you get past Aedi the Robot in the lobby. This station, with several LED screens, pays homage to remarkable local scientists and their inventions. Let your children watch and listen to the accounts of these Filipino scientists and get them inspired to become one in the future.
The Hall of the 10 Most Beautiful Experiments employed LED screens to showcase visual representations of the 10 most beautiful experiments in all of science based on the book The Prism and the Pendulum: 10 Most Beautiful Experiments in Science by Robert Crease.
The Universe Gallery, one of the best parts of the museum, is where the kids can learn (via different exhibits) the beginnings of earth and the universe. Be fascinated by the mini-planetarium and the dizzying space tunnel which are the interest points of this area.
The space tunnel leads to The Earth Gallery. Here, one will get to see how pre-historic earth looked like. Kids who are fascinated with dinosaurs will surely go crazy at the sight of the first T-Rex exhibit in the country. There are also realistic mannequins that show how men evolved over millenniums.
The Life Gallery‘s centerpiece is a giant model of the human brain. All around it are mini exhibits that feature plants, animals, and just about anything that’s living. Kids can learn about DNA and genes, the easy way, in this gallery.
The Atom Gallery has the most number of interactive exhibits. This area tries to explain in a playful way, heavyweight chemistry and physics concepts such as gravity, electromagnetism, and the quantum world.
The Technology Gallery, located at the second floor, is the largest gallery in terms of space. The different exhibits in this gallery aims to explain five different perspectives in dealing with technology: How We Live, Who We Are, How We Know, How Things Work, and Here to There.
A ticket to the interactive museum will let you explore as much as you can in three hours (enough, since you can go through everything in less than 2 hours). Since it’s an interactive museum, The Mind Museum doesn’t have guides that will walk you through from entrance to exit. They have, however, “Mind Movers”– a group of science enthusiasts who are perfectly capable of answering questions related to the stations.
Admission to The Mind Museum are at: Adult: P600; Children & Private School Student (up to college) : P450; Public School Student (up to college): P150; Teachers: P150; All Day Pass: P750; and below 2ft in height: Free. You may get your passes from the ticket booths outside but on-line purchasing is encouraged.
Please note the museum’s Holy Week Schedule:
The museum will be closed from Thursday to Saturday (April 5 to 7, 2012). Operations will resume on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012.
