Exploring the Tūhura Science Centre - Dunedin
Posted by Met Shop on
We recently took a trip to explore the Tūhura Otago Museum to do some practical science! The science centre is just one section of a museum with many diverse and engaging exhibits, but it is the part that budding scientists will love to visit.
One of the great attractions of the Science Centre is the fact that everything is hands-on, and you get to do some real experiments. I find that experimentation is one of the most effective learning methods. I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with the different setups and then delving into the science that made them work. Each station has informative explanations provided.
Some of the stations are instructive and guide you towards a specific conclusion. Some are more investigative and you can go your own way. Others are just pure fun, like the dna slide (kids only please!). Each one offers the opportunity to learn something.
It's not intuitive that two objects with different masses and sizes will fall to the ground at the same rate (when air resistance can be ignored), but nothing is more convincing than seeing it happen. That's what you get to test at one of the stations. At another station, trying to roll a ball onto a rotating table at just the right angle to get it to stay on the table as long as possible kept me occupied for ages! There was also the magnetic levitation station which I didn't spend enough time on. I needed to perform more tests on where to position the permanent magnet outside of the copper cowl to see if I could get the iron ball underneath to levitate. Just fascinating! Another station allowed you to look at your own image with different camera technologies. It's always fun to stand in front of an infrared camera and check out the hot-spots! That also kept the family occupied for some time.
Possibly the most popular area of the science centre is the tropical forest where you wander among the birds, plants, butterflies and fish and get to see amazing and colourful tropical creatures. There is a wide variety of plants (including some that are carnivorous) and you can explore multiple levels from the ponds and plants and ground level up to the tree canopies. The butterflies are tame enough to hitch a ride on your clothing so you need to be aware when leaving the forest and do a thorough check for passengers!