Spread Some Awesome

Budget : Php750 for an All Day Pass (for list of prices, check here)

 

Duration : at least 2 hours

 

Bummers : the downside of touring alone, less pictures of yourself but there are mind movers around who are really helpful

 

 

 

The Mind Museum is a tour-on-your-own and do-it-yourself museum journey that involves hundreds of interactive displays that can help you learn a lot about science and everything beyond it. On the opening day of The Mind Museum on March 16, 2012, I booked an All-Day Pass to tour the museum. Since most of my friends cannot skip work that day, I decided to visit it on my own. At first I was a bit hesitant because I thought I might get bored doing it alone. I was wrong. I didn’t notice how time passed by because I was so amused with all the interactive and digital stuff inside the museum.

 

The Mind Museum opens a new era in demonstrating science. It definitely lives by its “Science Comes  Alive” tagline.

 

Since the museum is huge and there are lots of things that you’d definitely appreciate better if you see them on your own, I’ll just give you a sneak peek of my tour. But before we embark into this journey, it’s important to note a few museum rules.

 

 

When you enter The Mind Museum, Aedi will welcome you. Aedi is this cool robot that will give you a brief intro about the museum. She will put emphasis that “Science is fun!”.

 

 

The Mind Museum is divided into 5 galleries. The first one I walked through is the Dance with the Atom Gallery. It showcases the smallest elements that rules our daily lives. I wish that giant bar of melting chocolate was real though, minus the fly on top.

 

 

Hold that ball in the center and make your hair rise!

 

 

If I had this Periodic Table of Elements when I was still taking up Chemistry, I would probably be a popular kid in school.

 

 

The Atom Dance Floor is still under development. I think if you peek through the 3D glass, you can see the atom-like structures from the screen dance to life.

 

 

The next gallery I checked out is the Leap into Life. This gallery tells a story how the life on our planet came to be. I can say it’s Biology come alive. In here, you will find the giant brain that flickers with light. I guess it imitates how signals to the brain are sent.

 

 

You can also find the cell and the brain in this gallery. There are lots of screens around that you can play games while learning about the building blocks of life.

 

 

There is also a computer mouse-like tool that is actually a microscope. It shows on the widescreen TV the image of the object that you are viewing with the microscope. And yeah, that’s a house cockroach. Ew.

 

 

Then, I checked out the Walk to Earth Gallery. This is a blast from the past. You can find here the history of our planet. Oh, and you can meet Stan here. I met him, he was pretty cool. I was pretty scared he might eat me. Lol.

 

 

Here is the whole of Stan. This 40-foot dinosaur is a replica of a T-rex. A bit of trivia I learned, chickens are predecessors of the T-rex. Good thing these scary dinos shrunk or else we’ll all be his meal.

 

 

There is also one corner with prehistoric people. When I saw them, I suddenly remembered Ross Geller. Oh, the kids won’t get it..

 

 

The fourth Gallery I have visited is the Invade the Universe. This brings you into the dark and vast space. What I super enjoyed in this gallery is the Space Shell show. You should check it out!

 

 

Though I felt a bit dizzy, I enjoyed passing through the tunnel craft, the passage from earth to the universe and vice verse. Here, have a spin of my shot using an iPhone.

 

 

One of the awesomest office uniform can be found in the Invade the Universe Gallery, the astronaut’s suit. If you wear this to office, your office is probably the universe. Nice!

 

 

In this gallery, you’ll definitely feel like you’re an astronaut. Have a close encounter with the rovers in Mars.

 

 

Finally, the last gallery covers the whole second floor of the museum – the High on Tech. This is the only museum I have been where you can find arcade games and play with them.

 

 

You will come across MIMO in this gallery. MIMO stands for Mind Museum Omnibot. This robot can be left on its own with worrying that it might hit anyone or anything. I observed it and it has a sensor that when it’s near something or someone, it changes its direction. It loves partying.

 

 

There are lots of tech stuff in this gallery that we rely on to make our daily lives easier. I think it would be better if you visit the museum to get learn about them on your own.

 

Both young and old can really learn a lot from The Mind Museum. Outside the museum, you can play and learn at Science in the Park. You should pay the first world-class science museum in the Philippines soon and experience an digitally interactive way of learning.

 

For a full scoop, check out my friend Pia Gutierrez’s The Mind Museum cover on Bandila here.

 

Spread some awesome..ness..

Tags: museum, robots, science