Outdoor Exhibits

Have fun exploring the large-scale interactive exhibits around the gardens and grounds of The Centre. These exhibits are located in three different areas.

Discovery Park

Water Planet (including the Water Play area)

Sound Dishes

Discovery Park

The Discovery Park is a 'Science Playground' of large-scale interactive exhibits designed to help visitors explore themes of force, movement, genetics and sound, in a way that is always fully ‘hands-on', and sometimes ‘feet-on' too.

The exhibits are designed so you can either investigate them individually or get friends and family to help you.

There is something for everyone among the 16 exhibits, including a fascinating sculpture in the middle of the park! Is it Einstein or the world? It really depends on your perspective.

Please note that, all children require close supervision and adult assistance in the Discovery Park AT ALL TIMES. As an outdoor facility, the Discovery Park may not be open in all weathers due to health and safety.

Water Planet

The Water Planet area lets you explore our fascinating world of water and how we use it.

Over 70% of Earth is covered by water and we have found many different ways to use its power. The Water Circuit explores some of these methods combining three devices to lift water - a bucket chain, village pump and Archimedes' screw - with three more that spring into action as the water flows back down - a turbine, waterwheel and tipping buckets. You can operate devices which in some cases would have been familiar to your ancestors centuries ago.

The Water Play tanks let you do just this, play with water! Build dams, explore water pressure using pipes and connectors, see the patterns a fountain makes as you turn the taps on and off and create locks and canals.

The natural power of water as it progresses from streams to rivers to oceans is explored in the Erosion exhibit. Scoop up some sand and see the patterns formed as water flows around it.

Can you lift 680Kg of solid granite? Water can! Watch how the Granite Ball floats effortlessly on a thin frictionless cushion of water. The water pressure under the ball is about one tenth the pressure of a domestic tap but this is enough to lift the ball from its socket. The ball is so symmetrical that with very little effort you should be able to push it in any direction.  

Sound Dishes  

A whispered message to a friend can be picked up loud and clear over 30 metres away!

Two large curved dishes are located at either end of the bottom lawn between Domes F and E. The curve is a parabola and acts like a giant reflector. A faint whisper spoken into the focus of one dish is magnified at the focus of the other making it easy to hear the message.

The parabolic shape of the dishes means all the sound waves bounced from one dish cross to the other dish where they are collected and converge towards the focus in phase. This means that the peaks and troughs of the waves are synchronised, working together to make the loudest possible sound vibrations. This way the sound is enhanced at the focus and you can clearly hear the message whispered into the opposite dish.
 
Parabolic reflectors are used in satellite dishes, reflecting telescopes, radio telescopes, spot lights and car head lights.