Singapore Science Center: A Great Family Visit

My family and I flew Singapore Airlines to Mumbai , India recently, and were able to get a free stopover in Singapore on our way.

While Singapore is a shoppers' and amusement-park-visitors' delight, my children being older, we had been through all the "rides" , so to speak, and decided to visit the Singapore Science Center , during our short visit .

The nice part about Singapore is its excellent public transport system, which was a welcome change from the Northern California automobile-centric life. What is also encouraging is the decent exchange rate between the United States Dollar and Singapore Dollar(1 Us Dollar is equal to roughly 1.50 Singapore Dollars) which makes things easy on the pocket, given that transportation and other things are so cheap in Singapore.

One of the things you need to check out before going to Singapore is the various deals they offer for tourists. We learned that if you safely preserved your Singapore Airlines boarding pass during your stay, showing it at the various amusement and educational parks, allowed you to buy tickets at a discount.

We also had another outstanding transport facility. Singapore Airlines has a bus called a hop-on/hop-off bus, painted yellow, that does the rounds of Singapore's attractions continuously during daily working hours. You can buy a single ticket that actually costs 12 Singapore dollars, for just 3 dollars, if you show the boarding pass. Then you can do rounds of the city the whole day, get off when you feel curious, hungry or wanting to shop or visit a bank , get back on the bus when you are finished and carry on.

We used this bus to visit the various scenic parks like Sentosa. For the Singapore Science center, which is slightly on the outskirts of the city in the suburb of Jurong, a quick calculation told us that taking one of Singapore's wonderful taxis would cost us just a wee bit more, but would get the 3 of us there, quicker and in more comfort, given the hot and sultry weather.

The road to the Science Center takes you by the National University of Singapore Campus, and further on to the Bird Park.

What was nice to see on arrival was that you could get off right at the entrance, and did not have to walk through huge parking lots, trying to remember from where you came in. The place had a modest parking lot, and it was refreshing to see most people coming by public transport. There were school trips consisting of elementary school children , walking in an orderly fashion, eager faces and all.

Turns out that almost 7,500 sq. m of exhibition space is devoted to the exploration of various topics in science and technology, all related to the syllabii taught in schools across Singapore. Most of the exhibits are interactive in nature and touching and experimenting by children, is encouraged , to activate their natural curiosity.

Close to the entrance , there is a kind of lobby , with various interactive puzzles, games, and demonstrations, which allow a child to learn some simple scientific principle, after playing an interesting game on a monitor. A wonderful way of priming the child for more serious exhibits inside. These puzzles and games are great even for adults, and one has to tear ones self away from these, since one has limited time (10.00am to 6.00pm, Closed on Mondays). What was nice is we found that school groups that came in were given worksheets for the students , pertaining to exhibits.

There are several halls or sections that you have a choice off , after you reach a central atrium , after doing these games. The atrium has some amazing exhibits like a Tesla Coil which is a highly dramatic and electrifying live demonstration of high voltage electricity. This 3.5 million volt coil generates spectacular five-meter long electric sparks that are akin to natural lighting. There was this young child of about 7or 8, cranking the lever there to generate sparks in the coil, and what was interesting is everyone let him be.

The Nanotechnology section is what looked interesting to us. The various exhibits, and touch screens, and audio experiments in this section actually kept a non-expert like me interested, and it was a nice way of learning the basics of what is now a leading field. An amazing way to learn levels of smallness, and how small is really small....

This section emerges on what is a water section, called Water Works, which tries to teach kids about water cycle, evaporation, water pressure and more. There are Water clocks, Water Maze ,Water Loop, Water Rockets, Circular rainbows, Water Saver, Coander effect , and other exhibits which are just outstanding fun for kids and parents, and teach in a fun way about water conservation, refraction, fluid pressure etc. Very thoughtfully, a huge blower has been provided to dry off after all this, and it was not surprising to see kids behaving as if at the beach, towels and all.

A Kinetic Garden is a nice break where children learn about interrelationships between various types and forms of energy. An Energy Machine, the Water Maze, the Sundial and the Solar Fountain. are some of the things we saw there.

One of the outstanding opportunities we had was of attending a special "China" exhibition that was organized by the Chinese Government , at the Science Center. Outstanding demonstrations of Chinese Calligraphy, native science and music , printing technology, weaving , systems of medicine, etc, had very helpful young Chinese students, eager to explain things to you. The display of progress of Chinese architecture was very interesting. There were various small films being shown in various sections, with comfortable seating in small groups. This entire section was an education for us, given the fact that the primary influence in Singapore has been Chinese, although Indians and Malaysians come a close second.

As a special exhibit we also saw "Stanley", which is an environmentally friendly and driver less robotic car at i-Space, a technology based exhibition gallery. This car was developed by Volkswagen's labs in Germany and Palo Alto , and Stanford University, and is a traveling exhibit. We were lucky to see it as it was on till August 12 only.

There is more than one can see in one day. What one enjoys is the very educative write ups in various sections next to the interactive set ups, that talk to you at your level.

There is also a room where you can sit for a while and get connected on the Internet. Sort of, put your feet up. Internet wi-fi charges at our hotel were prohibitive, and this was a welcome chance to check some important mails and confirm airline bookings and stuff. All this was free, and there was no watchdog counting your minutes, or some alarm bell ringing after 15 minutes of usage, etc. Nice.

There is actually a McDonald's on the premises, which may be considered good or bad depending on what age you are. But all that wandering around certainly gets you hungry and thirsty in Singapore weather, nothwithstanding the fact that the entire place is centrally air conditioned.

We took a leisurely trip back from the Bus terminus , which is about 8 minutes walk from the Science Center. A bus took us to Little India, after wandering for around 45 minutes through delightful parts of Singapore, dotted with greenery, impressive schools, sports facilities and the like.

A wonderful meal at an Indian restaurant topped off an invigorating trip to the science center.

Short distances, excellent public transport and the variety of good , clean , inexpensive food, makes this a welcome short stopover.

Our family recommends this Singapore Science Center whole heartedly to families with children , who are planning to visit Singapore, and want to avoid the Disneyland type rides and stuff, of which we have plenty at home.