Maths Alive! at the Gravity Discovery Centre - Review

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Sat 14 Jul 2018 - Wed 07 Nov 2018

The Gravity Discovery Centre is a not-for-profit science education centre and tourist destination situated in bushland just outside the town of Gingin. It was built in 2003 and has helped to bring science jobs and tourism to Gingin. The centre participates in scientific research, delivers education in the fields of Physics, Astronomy, Gravity and Cosmology and blends art and science and innovation together to create interesting science exhibits open to schools and the local community.

The Gravity Discovery Centre will be home to an international NASA designed science exhibition called MathsAlive! from July 14 to November 7. The goal of this exhibit is to inspire children and to show them how maths is involved in a lot of their favourite things from video games to sports to robotics. The Gravity Discovery Centre is the first spot in the MathsAlive! international tour. MathsAlive! aims to answer that question, "When will I ever use all of the maths they teach us?"



I was invited to attend MathsAlive! with my husband and daughter in return for a review. The Gravity Discovery Centre is a huge place. From the ,outside the first thing you will see is the Leaning Tower of Gingin and their Cosmology Gallery which is topped with a massive hexagon shaped dome.



The centre is surrounded by flowers and fauna that are so pristine the bushland is considered a biodiversity hotspot. There is a Gravity Cafe which serves light food and drinks and the Discovery Centre is home to a large number of interesting exhibits and displays. The grounds surrounding the centre have some interesting things as well like walk trails, a giant Black Hole replica, and a display of a Time Coil.

The Gravity Discovery Centre is open Tuesdays to Thursdays from 10am to 4pm and on Fridays and Saturdays from 10am to 8.00pm. The centre is closed every Monday, except on public holidays and during the school holidays. They are also shut on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day and Good Friday. Admission to the centre is $20.00 for adults, $16.00 for concession and $13.50 for children.



I thought that MathsAlive! was a really clever exhibit. The people who put it together clearly understand children well and obviously have a passion for science and maths and teaching. I really loved the interactive video games. The first one we tried was a snowboarding one. There are two snowboards. You can challenge a friend to a snowboard race. You climb onto one and press a button and then have to twist and angle your body to manoeuvre yourself down a snowboarding track. The point of this game is to teach kids about balance and precision.



Another good game was one that teaches you about the maths involved in defending the goal posts in a game of soccer. To make the perfect save you have to play the angles and learn how to predict where the ball is going to go.

via GIPHYLearn about wave motion

Other exhibits were more hands-on like the one about Wave Motion. This was a long string of metal coils suspended from the ceiling that you could touch and shake and watch ripples of motion shiver down the length of it.

via GIPHYThis fascinating display will teach you about frequency and motion

The display on Flicker Fusion was pretty neat. It had some dolls on a platform in a glass case. How it worked was you select the light setting and the speed setting that you want and then the platform would start to spin making the dolls look like they are animated and dancing and jumping about.



Other displays included a Crack the Code game, a section on robotics and space, a model devoted to design and engineering, and interactive exhibits about scientific principals like sound waves, free fall drops and chaotic pendulums.



There was so much to see and to do at the Gravity Discovery Centre we didn't have enough time to do everything. I would happily go back there again to do some more exploring and to learn some more about the world that we live in.

via GIPHYPick up a tuning fork and strike up a tune

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!date 14/07/2018 -- 07/11/2018
%wnperth