The Mind Museum at Taguig: A Complete First Timer’s Guide

Update Sept. 2013: DA VINCI – THE GENIUS Exhibit: Da Vinci Fever hits Manila! (Is it worth going to?)

After 5 years in the making, The Mind Museum at Taguig, the first world-class Science Museum in the Philippines is now here! 

It’s the biggest and most impressive with 250 hands-on, minds-on interactive exhibits in a 5,000 sqm exhibit area located in a 12,500 sqm JY Campos Park in Bonifacio Global City. 

It is a showcase of “What we know, how we know it and what we do with what we know” for kids age 6 to 96 🙂

This Php1 billion project was fully funded by private donations and created with the help of :

• Science Centre Singapore (as the Planning Consultant), 
• Jack Rouse and Associates (recognized as among the top ten museum and theme park designers in the world), 
• National Geographic Channel (for the required footages and stills for the exhibit)
• Architect Ed Calma and achitects from Lor Calma & Partners (for the futuristic, yet organic look of the entire museum based on cellular growth and structures)
• Filipino artists working with Filipino scientists and engineers (for the innovative exhibit designs to clearly and beautiful flesh out a Science principle or fact)

Here is a Complete First Timer’s Guide to The Mind Museum at Taguig:

Robot named Aedi (idea spelled backwards) welcomes you to the Mind Museum. 

You have 3 hours to interact and experience the science exhibits. (We were able to go around all the exhibit in the 5 galleries in 2 hours.)

Reminders:

• Food and Drinks are strictly not allowed.
• Taking of photos is welcomed. 
• Pets are not allowed inside the museum. 

Hall of Philippine Science located at the center of The Mind Museum.  It is a must pass area which showcases Filipino scientists’ here and around the world, and their passion for science. 

I was proud to enter this hall where you get to know the world-renowned Filipino Scientists. 

There are 5 main galleries in Mind Museum with the first 4 located in the ground floor.  Here are the highlights of the interactive exhibits and our personal favorites: 

(Legend: ❤ – our favorite must-see exhibits in The Mind Museum at Taguig)

I. THE ATOM GALLERY
has exhibit pieces that show the strange world of the very small in terms of forces and particles.

Atom Centerpiece. The Atom Centerpiece, will contain a 3D visualization of the atom through a program called “Atom in a box” developed by a physicist.  Through this, visitors will get a glimpse of how electrons behave, which serves as important knowledge to make the electronic tools humans use today. 

Everything is Made Up of Atoms. a sculptural exhibit that will show in one glance, the many levels of spaces inside a chocolate bar.  This exhibit features a chocolate bar at its center, which is then deconstructed to show its component structures – from molecules to atoms to quarks.

Whirlpool. An enthralling exhibition of gravity and centripetal force.  By watching balls spiral around a transparent funnel, visitors will be able to see that the effects of gravity in a playful way.

(Official Photo by The Mind Museum at Taguig)

Carbon: Basis of All Life on Earth. a game area where guests can create their own allotropes, and thus help them understand why carbon is such a versatile atom!

Periodic Table. In 1869, Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev organized 63 elements in a way that we can predict the elements that were not yet discovered then. The list continues to grow in number today as new elements are discovered. Open the cabinets of this Periodic Table and learn about the 118 elements comprising objects ranging from birthday balloons, to mobile rovers in Mars!

Static Ball. The Van de Graff static ball is a favorite of the kids and adults alike.  When visitors touch the static ball, they will experience their hair standing on end.  Visitors can explore how electrostatic energy is generated and what effects it produces.

(Note: This Static Ball exhibit is also available in the Philippine Science Centrum in Marikina City, and the Meralco Museum)

Electric Table: Magnets and Current. You move the ring from one end to another using magnetic field. 

Energy Forms. Turn the ring and you convert kinetic energy to mechanical to electrical and then to heat. JEan Charles Athanase Peltier discovered that if he joined copper wire and bismuth wire together, then to a battery, one of the junctions of the two wires got hot, while the other junction got cold. If the cold junction was put inside an insulated box, it becomes a low-efficiency refrigerator. Known as the Pelter effect, it shows that electricity can cause a heat difference at the junction of two different metals. 

Newton’s Cradle. How many balls will shoot off from one end when you hit it with a ball on the other end? Try it with more balls. Witness Newton’s Third Law of Motion at work: that there is an equal or opposite reaction to every action. 

❤ Frequencies.“See” what a pitch looks like! Frequency or pitch is a characteristic of sound. Sound comes in waves and pitch is manifested in the wavelengths — the higher the pitch, the shorter the wavelengths and the lower the pitch, the longer the wavelenghts. Press a button on each of the 7 tubes to see how varying pitches are translated into different wavelengths. 

❤ Shadow Box. Step into the shadow box and start posing like graceful ballerinas or fearsome kung fu masters, and leave your mark on the phosphorescent walls. This kind of wall absorbs the light flash and emits it back. If you stand between the light and the wall, your body and other things keep that light from hitting the wall. So after the light flashes and the wall gives oof the light after absorbing it, the shape of that “blocked portion” remains as a “frozen” shadow. 

(Note: This Shadow exhibit is also available in the Philippine Science Centrum in Marikina)

Light Bridge. a bridge that connects the Atom Gallery to the Universe Gallery, it is the only area in the museum’s mezzanine level.  It contains exhibits about the different kinds of “light” that fill the universe, whether seen or unseen by the naked eye.  These exhibits will show museum visitors that light is beautiful, awesome and useful.

II. THE LIFE GALLERY
is a dive into deeper understanding of how life surrounds and inhabits us – from microbes to large animals (such as a life size ‘butanding’), and from DNA, cells to a giant human brain model.

(Official Photo by The Mind Museum at Taguig)

❤ The Human Story. A faithful replica of our prehistoric ancestors. 

❤ The Human Brain. one of the largest exhibits in the entire museum, it is a walk thru exhibit where you can identify what brain part lights up when you sense, feel or think.

❤ Bernoulli’s Principle. In 1738, Doaniel Bernoulli discovered the principle that explains how birds are able to fly. Bernoulli’s principle works on the idea that because of the shape of a wing, the air travels more over the top of the wing creating higher pressure beneath it. The difference in pressure between the tow lifts the wing. It’s the same principle we use in making airplanes, race cars — even frisbees!

Whale Shark. a suspended life-size and life-life model of a whale shark, locally known as the Butanding.  

Small Worlds Within. Cells – a cell-shaped console that will serve as a tactile and visual encounter with an over-sized version of the cell and its parts.  It features a multi-media interactive program that will help guests learn more about cells.

III. THE EARTH GALLERY
tells of the story of the planet and our archipelago across the breadth of time; it includes a 3D animated film made by an all-Filipino crew that features 4.6 billion years of the planet’s natural history and evolution in 12 minutes.

❤ Stan, T.rex. The first T.rex exhibit in the Philippines is named Stan, after Stan Sacrison, who in 1987 discovered the most complete male T.rex skeleton ever unearthed.  It is cast from the real fossils.  

This is the most impressive towering exhibit in the museum that all kids would love 🙂 

Dinosaur poo anyone?

What a Difference a Day Makes?

❤ Air. Pass your hand over the sensor and watch a tornado form. 

(Official Photo by The Mind Museum at Taguig)

Rock of Ages / Mass Extinction. Depicts the layering of the earth’s crust and illustrate the different geological ages – from the Hadean period to present.  It also integrates the Mass Extinction exhibit, which illustrates 2 of the 5 mass extinctions that have occurred over the span of earth’s history.

(Official Photo by The Mind Museum at Taguig)

Volcano. See how volcanoes work by seeing how volcanoes erupt.  A combination of mechanical controls and audiovisual screens will help explain the power of a volcano.  

 

(Official Photo by The Mind Museum at Taguig)

Nature’s Hourglass. a mini-theatre that acts as a virtual time machine.  Inside, visitors will view a fully animated film entitled “Birthplace”, that will tell the story of Earth’s 4.6 billion year history in just 12 minutes!

(Note: I must admit I did not see this exhibit)

❤ Knowing Home: Floating Globe. Watch a live feed that displays the current state of the planet earth – from active volcanoes to typhoons, wind currents to earthquakes, and climate change.  

Surprise! Surprise! Dare to check out what’s inside?

❤ Spin Browser. Marvel at nature’s wonder by watching plants grow or animals move in high speed or slow motion through the Spin Browser.

Fungi. A One-Billion-Year-Old Kingdom. The Kingdom Fungi probably appeared on Earth about 1 billion years ago. They are more closely related to animals than to plants. Their cell walls are made of chitin, which are also found in the outer skeleton of insects! Unlike plants, they cannot manufacture their own food but instead, get it from the soil or dead organic matter. They serve as major decomposers of dead matter that define life cycles and food webs.

Beneficial or Harmful Bacteria? This one is for the nerds 🙂 

I dare you to pass through this spinning tunnel into the Universe Gallery. 

IV. THE UNIVERSE GALLERY
features the mysterious vastness of the universe and holds clues to where we came from and where we are going.  The gallery also contains a unique planetarium which simulates star-gazing from the point of view of literally laying down on a bed beneath the stars. 

(Official Photo by The Mind Museum at Taguig)

Spaceshell. The centrepiece of this gallery is a mini-planetarium that is 8 meters in diameter and can accommodate 35-50 visitors at a time.  Instead of chairs, visitors will sit and lounge on memory foam to simulate lying on the ground and staring at the night sky.  It will feature films that discuss the other planets and starts, as well as debates such as the existence of extraterrestrial life.

(Note: The Planetarium in NIDO FORTIFIED Science Discovery Center is a lot better)

❤ Look at the Moon an interactive wall display that shows the moon’s different phases, and includes other information about the moon’s cycle and path around the earth.

(Official Photo by The Mind Museum at Taguig)

The Lifetime of a Star an exhibit that describes how starts are born and how they die.  Hanging models display different phases in the life cycle of a star.

The Solar System.

Dressed for Space – Astronaut Suit

Space Quest History from 1990 to 2011. 

Avenue of Life the escalator connecting to the 2^nd floor is an exhibit in itself, immersing one in sights and sounds that showcase five of the Earth’s major habitats – temperate regions, polar environments and even cold, sunless existence in the deep waters of hydrovents.

V. THE TECHNOLOGY GALLERY (2nd Floor)
located above all four galleries, shows how we, with the tools we invent and innovate, are able to express our evolving humanity.  It is the story of how we humans have explored ways of being alive!

The different long songs from the 50s to the 2000s. 

❤ Laser Harp!

Night Vision Googles Exhibit

A little Timezone game section for the kids 🙂

❤ MIMO is the in-house obstacle avoiding robot.  It will freely roam the Technology gallery – it has sensors that detect obstacles in its path causing it to turn a different direction.

(Official Photo by The Mind Museum at Taguig)

❤ Solar Bugs. “Solar bugs” will be caged in three see-thru vessels where they will move all together when a halogen lamp (serving as the “Sun”) is on.  The lights on the vessels will be sensor activated, and will turn on and off upon motion detection.  This exhibit shows how “solar” panels serve as power sources.

Mathematics: Cars with Different Wheel Shapes. Wheels are round because a round shape maintains a uniform “size” as it rotates. But there are other shapes that have these characteristics. These are called Reuleaux shapes (from Franz Reuleaux, a German engineer who did not really discover the concept of constant width). An example is a Reuleaux triangle. Imagine rotating this triangle inside a square and you will realize that each side of the triangle touches the square in one point. This is proof that it has a constant width in all directions. 

Mathematics: Elliptical Billiard Table. Place both balls on the two marked foci. Hit any of the two balls and it is sure to rebound and hit the other ball. This will only work on an elliptical table and not on any other shape of a table because in an ellipse, the sume of the distances from the two foci to every point on the line always remains the same.  

The Malampaya Project. A representation of the discovery of 2.7 trillion cubic ton of natural gas near Palawan called for the greatest engineering feat in the history of the Philippines.  The Shell Malampaya Natural Gas Project constructed a  504-kilometer 24-inch diameter pipeline from the source to the Batangas plant.  That is the equivalent of 34,000 full-size buses in a chain!  

❤ Scents. Humans can detect about 10,000 odors! Scents are the best “bookmarks” for your memories since when you smell, the molecules go directly to the emotional center in your brain, associating it with what you are experiencing at that moment. The sense of smell has evelved to help us survice because it tells us when there is danger or pleasure nearby by the odor we smell– whether it is rotting food, smoke from fire, sumptuous food being cooked or your beloved’s perfume. Check the scents in these spheres and see if you recall a specific memory because of it.

 
❤ Beauty Symmetry. The Beauty is in the Phi of the Beholder. Highlights the technologies that we come up with – in cosmetic, architecture, and art – to express the role of proportion in our lives. 

MIND MUSEUM FACILITIES:

(Official Photo by The Mind Museum at Taguig)

Auditorium – 198 seating capacity (with space for 2 wheelchairs) 

(Official Photo by The Mind Museum at Taguig)

Mind Pods – 2 classrooms with 40 seating capacity  
Mind Lab – 1 Laboratory with 35 seating capacity

The Mind Museum also has an outdoor Science-in-the-Park where visitors can experience playful science through four-themed pockets: Music, Math, Living and Water. 

The Mind Museum at Taguig
JY Campos Park,3rd Avenue,
Bonifacio Global City, 1634 Taguig, Philippines

Read First: The Mind Museum…Coming Soon March 16, 2012!

Read BIORHYTHM Exhibit @ The Mind Museum: What’s So Cool About it?

Live an Awesome Life,

 
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Full Disclosure: Mind Museum at Taguig is a project of Bonifacio Global City which is our partner in Mercato Centrale @ BGC. We attended the family day press preview of Mind Museum at Taguig last March 3, Saturday. 

P.S. I’ve been to most of the Science Museums in the Country – Nido Fortified Science Discovery Center in Mall of Asia, Philippine Science Centrum in Marikina, Meralco Museum in Ortigas, and Museo Pambata in Manila. But nothing beats the world-class vision and execution of Mind Museum at Taguig. Congratulations to the Bonifacio Global City and to the City of Taguig!