By Anna Valmero

Exposing the youth to interactive exhibits can inspire their curiosity in science and some concepts work.

“Learning can take place with just 2 minutes of exposure to science exhibits,” says Philippine Foundation for Science and Technology (PFST) executive director May Pagsinohin.

The Philippine Science Centrum is a flagship program of the PFST.

By interacting with the exhibits, students and adults can play with the devices and explore how they work, Pagsinohin says.

The Science Centrum houses about 150 interactive and integrative exhibits that students can explore to discover the science behind them.

Now four years after moving from UP Manila, the 18-year old Science Centrum is now located at the Riverbanks Center in Marikina. It occupies a warehouse with a floor area of about 2,500 square meters.

Before the year ends, there are plans to open a space and biotechnology galleries, she says.

For the space gallery, the Department of Science and Technology has recently released P1.5 million, according to Pagsinohin. This would be allotted for the in-house development of exhibits, such as the human gyroscope and constellation display as well as the plan to order a spacesuit from NASA.

As I toured the science museum, it was like reviving vague memories of childhood awe in exploring several of the classic displays.

During my tour, two exhibits caught my eye: the Van de Graaff generator and the Tesla Coil. Invented in 1931, the Van de Graaff generator has a sphere that when touched by the hands supplies positive charges to the body and makes the hair stand on end due to positive charges on the strands repelling each other.

The Tesla Coil is a resonant transformer that generates high voltage, low current alternating current that looks like lightning.

Other exhibits feature how natural phenomenon like the cyclones, tsunami and whirlpools are formed. Favorite exhibits of students include the classics anti-gravity mirror, symmetroscope, ring bubbles, floating head, frozen hand, finger tingler and Archimedes’ screw (a machine for raising water).

Fore less than a hundred bucks, anyone can access the center’s 10 exhibit galleries: lights, vision and perception, water, earth science, electricity and magnetism, children’s gallery, bodyworks and mechanics. The price is comparatively cheap compared to what you can learn and discover after a one-and-a-half hour tour.

The center also offers traveling exhibits such as Adventures in Discovery, Sci-Fun Caravan and Science on the Move, which feature 40 replicas of PSC’s interactive exhibits. The moving exhibits tours the countryside - reaching 86 locations in the country — to reach various individuals, communities and organizations who cannot visit Manila.

All exhibits were developed by six Filipino designers under the PSC Fabrication Inc. The in-house team designs, builds and repairs the science exhibits using local materials.

Every month, the maintenance cost allotted for repair of exhibits at the centrum and the traveling exhibits reaches P50,000, says Pagsinohin.

Having an in-house team also allows for cheaper exhibit development. The team has created a Van de Graaff generator way for half of its total market cost, says Pagsinohin.

The team also fabricates replicas of science centrum exhibits for shipment in local and overseas. International clients include Australia, Brunei, Singapore and Nepal. This provides the Science Centrum an alternative source for operating expenses aside from foundation grants, she adds.

About 95 percent of visits at the Philippine Science Centrum are from school field trips, family visits account for the remaining 5 percent.

Since 1990, the science museum has attracted close to 3 million visitors. Department of Education Secretary Jesli Lapus in a recent memo encouraged visits to the center for educational field trips.

However, Pagsinohin says students on field trips often visit less educational institutions today as itineraries more often include amusement parks.

She said if students and teachers are exposed to educational exhibits, it could help spark their curiosity to study science more and in the long run, help freshen up the local talent pool of scientists.

“Through exhibits, students both the young and old, can learn things through hands-on discovery,” she says.