Interactive science centres make for a great day out with the kids. Different to museums, these places focus on learning through interacting. That means big exhibits with bits you can push, pull and turn with delightful results. Figuring out how to make the exhibits do different things can help develop problem solving skills, ignite curiosity and is loads of fun. As well as the interactive exhibits many centres have a planetarium and/or a theatre where presenters perform exciting experiments that usually involve something exploding or going on fire, who doesn’t like that?
We The Curious
Bristol
Formerly known as AtBristol this place has over 250 hands-on exhibits spread over 2 floors for your kids to play with. There’s always a lot going on here with all their Live Lab, hands-on kitchen, greenhouse and various drop-in activities. They have a great exhibition on animation developed in partnership with the creators of Wallace and Gromit. My personal favourite is their 3D planetarium, which is the only one in the UK, it’s absolutely stunning.
Wonderlab
The Science Museum, London
https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/wonderlab-equinor-gallery
This is the Science Museum’s interactive exhibition. It’s quite new and claims to be the most spectacular interactive gallery in the world. It has over 50 mind-blowing exhibits, shows and demonstrations over 7 different zones including the light zone, space zone, electricity zone and chemistry bar. Its giant friction slides are very popular.
Glasgow Science Centre
Glasgow,
https://www.glasgowsciencecentre.org
It takes most of a day to fully explore the 4 floors of fun in this large science centre. I really enjoyed their gallery called “A Question of Perception” it’s got some astonishing illusions in it that make you question if you can ever really trust what you see. They also have a big exhibition on human biology and a very nice science theatre and planetarium.
W5
Belfast,
W5 has 6 different exhibition areas each with a different theme and designed for a particular age range. In their under-8s area children can work together on some impressive soft-play construction activities. They also have a new VR-zone which I’m looking forward to trying on my next visit their. Climbit is a huge sculpture of platforms, cables, pipes and nets made specifically for climbing on, I’m gutted i’m too old to go on it.
Techniquest
Cardiff,
www.techniquest.org
The UK’s longest established science centre is also where the founders of Letterbox Lab met! It has two floors of incredible interactive exhibits. I’ve always loved their planetarium, it’s small size and emphasis on presenter-led shows gives it an intimacy and interactivity you don’t get in other planetariums. Their science-theatre is one of the best in the UK and this half-term they’re running a show with a custard-powered flame thrower in it, which is one of the best things in the world.
Will you taking your family to a science centre this half term? Which science centres did we miss? Let us know. Happy Experimenting.
Would you like to spend time with your children doing something that’s fun and educational for them and hassle-free for you?
Letterbox Lab is a monthly science kit that arrives through your letterbox containing everything you need to perform incredible experiments with your children.
Your children will love it. It’s colour changing, fizzing reactons, slimes, things that glow in the dark, making helicopters and catapults. All with beautifully illustrated comic-style instructions that they will actually enjoy reading.
You’ll love it because it’s so easy. It just arrives at your house with everything you need to do all the experiments. Unlike other science kits there’s no looking in the back of cupboard for cream of tartar or figuring out where you can buy propanol on a Sunday afternoon. You just open the box and get started with ease.
Find out more about our unique series of science kits here
Image credits:
Science Museum photograph © Copyright Anthony O’Neil and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Glasgow Science Centre photograph © Copyright E Gammie and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
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