Newton Park science museum

It’s really hard to provide the same schooling experience for my children as their friends back home may be getting while living in a country where they don’t speak the language.

If we were homeschooling in Australia, I would at least have access to many more resources. We have wonderful libraries in Australia, with many free interactive activities. Our museums have many exhibits geared towards children, as do our art galleries. We have historical theme parks, great holiday programs and a lot of it is even free or very cheap.

In Krasnoyarsk these kinds of activities are not as common, although they do exist. If they do, they are often organised through the schools, and not available to individuals, or they are quite theoretical and too language rich for my girls to understand.

One thing our kids unfortunately miss out on is all the excursions that reinforce their learning and make it a little less dry. Particularly when for much of the year we can’t just go and enjoy the outdoors to do interesting activities.

So imagine my joy when I stumbled upon a new (just on one year old now) interactive science museum. It pales in comparison to the size of Science Works in Melbourne. But what it lacks in number of exhibits, it makes up for in spades with enthusiasm – and with thrills.

Aside from being able to lie on a bed of nails, play with a plasma globe, experiment with prismatic displays and make a mini planetarium to take home, there were live science shows.

We watched a science demonstration using liquid nitrogen.
I’m not sure whether it is the Russians’ infinite experience with cold over ours that lightens their attitude toward working with such dangerously cold material, or whether it’s just their general lackadaisical attitude toward occupational health and safety measures. (Hey, I regularly see workers walking around construction sites eight storeys up with no scaffolding.)
The entertaining young lady who demonstrated the fascinating powers of a liquid that boils at just -196°C was remarkable (Ok, it’s -195.7°C for the details orientated people out there, but who’s going to quibble over .3 of a degree at a temperature I can’t even fathom?!).

 

There’s no doubt she knew what she was doing, but all the safety equipment she seemed to have was a pair of tongs, the occasionally used leather glove, and a lot of spunk. I don’t think most of what we saw would have passed OH&S requirements in Australia, so we were certainly privy to some drama we wouldn’t have experienced otherwise – including having a bowl of it passed around the audience! Make sure you watch the video below to the end for the most exciting bit! 🙂