Science Centre & Planetarium - Wollongong

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We both decided to spend some time at the Science Centre in Wollongong, we enjoy this sort of thing. We live north of Sydney and Wollongong is way down south so to give us the most time to visit the centre we also had a couple of nights in a hotel in the area. It is a very long time since we visited the area, since a lot of motorways have been built saving at least a hundred traffic lights so the journey was quite pleasant.




The centre is part of the University of Wollongong and is supported by many local businesses who have also provided some of the exhibits. There are over 100 interactive displays and most are suitable for children of all ages or adults like us who are approaching their second childhood, we had a fantastic time. We visited during the week and not during the school holidays so we had the place almost to ourselves, if you plan on taking children the best time would be either weekends or school holidays when they have special events and displays. We found that the interactive displays were suitable for any age, those from about the age of 10 or 11 would learn quite a lot of basic science from operating the displays, anyone younger would just have fun watching things happened when they pressed button, moved levers or turned the controls. They have a lovely Kiosk which caters for all tastes including vegetarian, there's seating in a dining room or in the open air, although it's winter here it was a nice sunny day so we had our meal outdoors and enjoyed it very much, so tasty we went back for seconds.




We ended our day watching a performance in the Planetarium. Very comfortable seating, didn't really want to leave after the show. The sound was was excellent with a very interesting commentary and the quality of the visuals was very high mainly using actual film and still photographs taken by space telescopes such and Hubble and various spacecraft that have travelled throughout our solar system. It is a long time since we have seen a Planetarium performance and this technique was very pleasing, to see actual video and still made it much more realistic. We couldn't leave the Science Centre without calling into the Shop, such a huge range of educational toys at very reasonable prices, I do wish that something like this had been available when I was growing up, it could have easily have changed my life. I now really enjoy cosmology but in my 70s it hurts my head trying to understand some of the complex concepts, if only I'd started younger.








Click on the Photos below to see the rest of our snapshots along with explanations of the exhibits. These are just a small selection, there are many more to see on your visit.

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Photos

Entrance to Science Centre
There is plenty of free parking for those visiting take your parking ticket in with you and the staff will validate it to give you free parking. If you are not driving there are free buses every twenty minutes from the town centre, every ten minutes at peak times. This site http://www.wollongong.com/travel-info/free-shuttle-bus.aspx shows a map of the bur route. You are allowed pass-outs, see reception before you go. You can take your camera into the exhibition. They have all the facilities that you would expect inside.

Gyroscope
This is one of the first demos, a gyroscope in the form of a large briefcase, the circular part is a large flywheel. The device starts off in the slot of the large box to the left, a mechanism then starts the flywheel spinning, a light indicates when it is ready to be removed, the person holding the case can then feel the gyroscopic effect of the spinning flywheel.

Elephant
This interactive visit will be fascinating to both young and old children. The youngsters will enjoy the way the elephant moves when buttons and levers are pressed and knobs are turned. Older children may learn something about hydraulics, various coupling methods and joints.

Videos
Here you can select various trades found in the area, your selection will then be shown on the next screen along with a commentary describing the type of work that they do.

Videos
Your selected video is shown here.

Dynosaur
This one will be very popular with children of all ages.

Seismograph
A very interesting exhibit which uses data from an actual earthquake to explain the principles of the seismograph.

Seismograph
The working part of the seismograph mentioned in the previous picture.

Pendulum
I remember this one from my school-days, if you have a pendulum big enough it will keep swinging all day. The surprising thing is that the pendulum appears to rotate, it doesn't it is really stationary and it's the earth that does the moving. Come back later in the days and see how many more dominoes have been knocked over.

Electricity Generator
Turn the handles and make electricity, a good easily understood demo.

Combustion Engine
This one is fascinating, a cut away engine demonstrates how the combustion engine works. Younger children will also enjoy seeing all the parts move.

Combustion Engine
A few notes on the Combustion Engine.

Combustion Engine
A different view of the cutaway Combustion Engine.

Pedal Generator
You can see just how powerful you are, sit on the bike and the paster you pedal the more electricity you generate, the board on the wall shows your score.

Electricity
More information on the generator in the previous picture.

Robot
On a bust day this exhibit will be very popular. The robot reacts to light and buttons pressed by onlookers, it will run around all over the place. Very interesting because robots will more than likely be a big part of our future.

Remote Control
A good one for all ages to play with. A robotic arm is used to lift and build small bricks into shapes ad patterns, the only limit is your imagination.

Magnetism
Demonstrates magnetism, it is a very bog part of our lives and used in just about anything that moves with electricity.

Magnetism
A large ball is suspended by magnetism, the buttons let you adjust it.

Vortex
Ever wondered how a vortex is formed, this one explains it.

Vortex
This one shows the Vortex being created.