This exhibit will be called Ground Up: Building Big Ideas, Together. Photo: Museums Victoria.
Liam Mannix, Teens to bend spacetime fabric in new Scienceworks exhibition, The Age, 24 October 2017
Scienceworks will use a $6 million funding boost to open two new major exhibitions, including a huge space that will allow teenagers to bend the fabric of spacetime.
The entire first floor of Scienceworks’ Spotswood-based museum will be rebuilt into an exhibit showcasing advancements in gravitational waves, particle accelerators, aerodynamics and microscopic worlds. The museum is dubbing it Beyond Perception: Seeing the Unseen.
The $3.75 million exhibit will let teenagers build their own vortexes and light sculptures, and has been developed with the input of top scientists from across the state – as well as an advisory board of teenagers. It will open April 2018.
Also to come is a $2.5 million exhibit called Ground Up: Building Big Ideas, Together. Targeted at children under five, it will be a space where they can build contraptions and fly them through wind-tubes, and practice basic coding skills. The exhibit, which opens in December, will be screen-free.
“I’m particularly delighted with the way these facilities have been designed to welcome girls,” said Museums Victoria chief executive Lynley Marshall.
“Research shows girls as young as four are already excluding themselves from science, technology, engineering and math careers.”
The two state government-funded exhibitions are part of Scienceworks’ investment in science, technology, engineering and maths education, and are accompanied by a range of educational programs that will be rolled out to schools across the state.
“These inspiring and empowering STEM experiences will help better prepare our children for tomorrow’s world and give them a head start for the jobs and opportunities of the future,” Minister for Children and Families Jenny Mikakos said.