Singapore Science Centre

This was a place I'd heard good things about before we visited, both from people with children and those without.  So it seemed a logical must do with my fiance's sons whilst they were visiting.  I'll be blunt though I was disappointed with it.

To me it seemed very chaotically organised.  Whilst there were plenty of great hands on activities it was hard to follow around the centre in a logical fashion and avoid missing displays that perhaps the boys may have liked to explore more.  I guess the idea is that you pick and choose (and come back again) what you want to do but for me I felt like we may have missed out on things as a result.

As well as the general layout seeming chaotic part of the centre was also being altered and was therefore a work in progress so to speak.  Visitors were still able to view what was already in place there which was no bad thing I admit.  However where they had not completed the exhibition there was just a large, mainly empty room.  It actually almost seemed as if we had trespassed into an area we should not have been in, apart from the fact we were not the only slightly bemused visitors in the room and there was nothing to physically stop us walking into this area.

The centre did have a separate temporary exhibition about sharks, 'Planet Shark' which, in contrast to the main centre, seemed well organised and really enjoyable, interesting and informative.  There were numerous facts and details about sharks as well as how they have been turned into creatures to be feared throughout history through first hand accounts, films and so on.  They also had damaged surf boards and other paraphernalia from shark attacks and a lot of information about the trade in shark fins and the efforts that are being made to stop this.   Unfortunately, having checked on the centre's website this exhibit has now closed (so my apologies as it has taken me a while to publish this post) but for me this was the best part of our visit. 

We did see one further clever exhibit just before we left and it was my step sons who actually spotted it.  It was a portrait of the (now former) President (though he was still President at the time of our visit) S. R. Nathan which moved as we watched it.  It really did look like those portraits that follow you with their eyes as you move across a room.  I wonder if they've replaced it yet with Dr. Tony Tan?

Perhaps we were just unlucky, there were plenty of exhibits to be seen and it is clearly very popular.  Maybe it was also, in part, because science has never been my most favourite topic, I admit that much of the Science Museum in London is completely wasted on me, so don't take my word for it.  I'm afraid though I personally left this place disappointed and with the feeling that it did not match the good things I had previously heard about it from other people.