Once again, a good thing keeps getting better. Since my last visit when the Centre was in a transition period, lots have happened: a Forest Lane, user-friendly signage on the floor, staff on Segway, a climbing wall, an Arctic expedition, a dancing floor... and their new special exhibition Brain: The inside Story.
I visited on a Friday when the place was filled with the effervescence of excited teens, which reminded me that the Ontario Science Centre is always more fun for older kids when they're attending with their friends. (They just love sharing their discoveries with each other.) And most of the action was not at the new exhibition. It was at the AstraZeneca Human Edge on Level 6 (in front of the restaurant).
Over the years, the Centre has reshuffled a few elements and added many new ones. I recognized some displays found in other sections in older days but the full space offers a new elegant and whimsical design. The Arctic Expedition is a small but fun maze where one enters, makes decisions, and "suffers" the consequences. Once you come out of it, you understand the strategic positioning of a climbing wall to your right. On the other side of the room, students were having a ball, dancing to the music of a large juke-box. Go up the stairs near this section and walk through the tunnel to see what happens! (I'm not telling.)
As for the visiting exhibition Brain: The Inside Story (included with the cost of admission), it is not as physically engaging as the rest of the Science Centre but definitely interesting. Allow the kids to let off some steam before entering the Brain section. (Scroll down to see photos and descriptions.)
I recommend entering from Level 2 (left of the ticket counter) to walk along the giant measuring tape stelling the geological history of our planet, with of lovely view of the ravine as a bonus.
It leads into the Great Hall with a moving installation hanging from the ceiling.
Then, it's the favourite part of toddlers, the three long escalators down to the Valley Building. From the top of the third escalator awaited part of a display I had not seen yet: a white pine trunk with roots announcing the entrance of the Forest Lane.
From the large windows in the corridor leading to the Valley Building we can see lively birds.
They've added clever signage on the floor. It's getting harder and harder to get lost in the Science Centre! Make sure the kids get to play with the interactive floor. (There's a "pond with fish" in the middle of the Hot Zone.)
I liked the installation Biotectonics by Elaine Whittaker turning science into art with the images she took with her microscope in her studio-laboratory as she cultured an ancient bacteria. Yep! You were admiring bacterias.
From the Hot Zone, you see the ever-changing lights of the threshold to three different rooms of Ontario Science Centre but I suggest you try to drag your kids first to the older section of the centre to the tropical Rain Forest, following it right after with a tour of the cold cave in the Living Earth.
Past the tornado, is the Science Arcade where you might arrive in time to see the popular hair-raising ball (actually called a Van der Graaf generator) in action, or check the schedule for the next one.
Then, you can come back to the AstraZeneca Human Edge.
The entrance to the Arctic expedition is on the right side of the climbing wall.
I pushed a button to see if I'd have the bad luck of living through an avalance (when the dice shows an X). I survived and was told to take right-hand corridor.
Later, I was asked to choose the three items to take with me to finish the last part of the climb at night. Warning, one door leads to your death!
I went up the stairs by the restaurant to check out A Question of Truth, including a mezzanine overlooking the Human Edge and an intriguing test to enter the room.
The Brain exhibition is on Level 6, past the Hot Zone with interactive floors, and beyond the Rock Paper Science Hall (where they offer the paper making workshops amongst other things).
There's plenty of reading required to reap the benefits of the various experiments. The clever exhibition finds all kinds of ways to make us understand how the brain works. When I learned that our brain may have at least 300 trillion connections, it made we wonder if it is not one of the reasons why we're so hooked to social media... all that connectivity in us.
One display featured a wall of stacked reels of thread. Looking at them one by one, or in small groups, you can't see the pattern. Then you see the Joconde, even though it's upside down. This process, which takes us a few seconds of conscious effort, is done in 1/50 of a second every time our brain processes visual information.
Younger kids will love the screens in the back of the room, where they're asked to make decisions as a greedy kid who badly wants a cookie. (We can all relate...) We get to see the physical impact of the kid's emotions on his body depending if he steels or not the cookie his mom forbade him to have before dinner. Hilarious! It's hard on the nerves to be a bad kid!
The Weston Family Innovation Centre had been well put to use by the students on the day of my visit! They had engaged in paper plane flying contests, designed shoes, done time-laps short movies, had their photo turned into a wall of bubbles...
Then, you go up to Level 4 where big kids want to explore the Space room while kids 8 years and under will go crazy in the two rooms of KidSpark. Note that big kids also love this section and the staff might let the older siblings join their little brothers and sisters if the place is not too busy.
KidSpark includes a fun special-effects room.
... and water games.
... and a view over a large pond.
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