Sunday, May 25, 2008

SM Science & Discovery Center

Miguel and I have been planning to go see the SM Science & Discovery Center for sometime now especially since I've enrolled him for a couple of sessions at the Lego Mindstorms Robotics Center. By some fortune and misfortune we ended up roaming around the gallery yesterday.

The place wasn't as big as I thought, but it had a really high-tech planetarium, a far-cry from the planetarium I visited when I was in grade school in Manila. We watched a short-film about the possibility of life in other planets. I kinda freak out over the thought of "life in other planets" a.k.a. "aliens", but that's what Harrison Ford logically narrated in the film. Brrrr, scary thought. I whispered to Miguel then that if he wanted to find more information about planets he could just to and check out the "Sky on Google Earth" since it's got hoards of information fro NASA integrated into eat. A planetarium right on your desktop!

The friendly gallery attendant gave us a short tour of the 8 galleries they had installed in the center. They have an area where you can test your "Grossology IQ", a Sniff Sniff area (my nose was disgustingly accurate in guessing the icky-dicky smell) and the Burp thingy which Miguel enjoyed. There was also the "Urine Game" which worked like a video arcade game but an educational one.

I felt proud when I saw the replica of the "Sinag" solar-powered car. I'm proud that it's a Filipino invention plus the fact that my alma mater, De La Salle University, was deeply involved in the project. I wonder when this will become a commercial car. I think this should something that our government should really push for since we do get a lot of sun in our country. Nearby the car was the flight simulator where Miguel disappeared to while I was scrutinizing the Sinag.

At the second floor of the center we saw replicas of the world's tallest buildings. We also tried out the earthquake simulator which we found quite funny. And then we checked-out the robots gallery where Miguel enjoyed the bump-car-like game.

Overall, it was an "okay" experience. I wasn't really ready to roam around the center since it wasn't a scheduled one, but I think the place would be more appealing to young children. I had hoped though that there would be a feature on Filipino inventions and scientists.

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