Questacon National Science and Technology Centre in Canberra, Australia
David Whitley heads to an attraction in the Australian Capital Territory that genuinely does make science fun.
Men of action
The three children look somewhat perturbed. This is supposed to be for them, after all, but testosterone has taken over. The dads are now lining up in front of the radar gun, throwing tennis balls as hard as they physically can in a bid to out-score each other. Faces grimacing, shoulders virtually dislocating, the magic 100km/h is the target.
Forget any pretence about it all being a bit of fun, this is the ultimate Man Test, and any cub who fails shall be savaged by the rest of the pack and left for the jackals. The straining muscles and sweating brows are all too visible. It doesn’t seem as though the measuring equipment is all that reliable though — anything thrown off-target records a laughably low score.
One father looks shamefaced after his seven-year-old daughter throws slow and accurate, beating his wayward howitzer with plenty to spare.
Questacon: making science fun
Questacon, Canberra’s attempt to make science fun, is a bit like this. Ostensibly aimed at the kids, it’s often the adults who get the most out of it. The tennis balls and radar gun are just the first stop in a giant playground. They’re part of a sports exhibit that allows you to test various skills, such as how long it takes you to cycle off your lunch, and whether you match up to an Olympic walker. Despite always being told I walk way too fast, my 7km/h is nothing on the elite — doing up to 16km/h for 50km is an incredible feat. Mental note: never again claim that Olympic walking events are for people that are rubbish at running or the equivalent of doing the Tour De France on tricycles.
As is all too customary with this sort of thing, the kids seem to get the better of their parents, particularly when it comes to any test of balance, agility or nimble-footedness.
“Come on, let’s go upstairs,” says one dad, clearly in a bit of a sulk. “We’ve spent enough time here. And I was letting you win, of course.”
Fairground sideshow
Next up is a fairground sideshow, arguably the best part of the whole museum. The concept is astonishingly simple, the attractions we all grew up with, but with explanations as to how they work. These range from the simple, such as how fortune tellers say things that are so vague that they’re true for everybody, to a rollercoaster simulator, which shows the effect your vision has on the sensation of movement. After sitting inside it, it’s clear that what you see is far, far more important than what the ride is actually doing — those thrill rides are all about optical illusions in a small way. You could easily spend a couple of hours in this section alone, attempting to spin balls into buckets and generally trying to do things that seem very easy, but are deliberately designed to catch you out.
Giant slde
In the corner, though, is one whopping great slide. It’s so big and steep that, whilst going down, you get the temporary sensation of freefall. The kids are lined up patiently outside it for their turn, and the thought going across the faces of the dads is all too easy to read. ‘I really want a go, but lining up in a queue of nine-year-olds in order to play on a slide is a wee bit too humiliating,’ may as well be carved in between the furrowed brows.
Playing God
But it’s onwards and upwards for the chance to play God. For the budding evil megalomaniac, the geography area is great. You can simulate volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, landslides, the works. An extended maniacal laugh isn’t quite a prerequisite, but it might as well be. While the disasters unfold in miniature, houses being shaken, knocked down and covered in waves, there are explanations of what is happening and why. Okay, they are hardly going to see you through a HSC exam, at least it’s an attempt to give a bit of an education to those more at home pulling the legs off spiders.
Making sweet music?
At the top of the building (the exhibitions spiral upwards), there’s the chance to finish the magical mystery tour by making an almighty racket. Theoretically, this is learning about music, but to all intents and purposes, it’s just an excuse to press buttons, dance on giant keyboards and batter xylophones made of different materials until everyone has a really bad headache.
In short, this is exactly what museums should be about — entertainment rather than just a collection of dusty old relics. The kids, even ones that would usually be rolling their eyes at a mere mention of the word ‘museum’, love it. The dads, however, are too busy cranking out AC/DC classics on the air guitar in the corner to notice.
The Questacon National Science and Technology Centre is on King Edward Terrace on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin.
This article was originally written for Ninemsn.com.au in 2008.
