Rooms with a purpose in view / Review of 'The Exploratory'

23 December 1989

The Exploratory, Old Station, Bristol

IF YOU live in the West Country and want somewhere different to take
the children during the school holidays, be sure to try the Bristol Exploratory,
one of the new breed of hands-on science exhibitions. In September the Exploratory
settled into a permanent home at Bristol’s Old Station.

The Old Station building is steeped in history. It was the original
engine shed built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Railway.
National Power sponsors the Exploratory, which has around 150 working scientific
experiments. Some are gifts from local companies, such as Hewlett Packard.
The slogan ‘Science you can handle’ says it all. The ‘plores’, as the experiments
are called, spread over two floors. As the organisers say proudly, there
is not a single ‘do not touch’ sign in the whole building.

When I visited, families were quietly enjoyed the experience, with parents
as interested as their children. Elsewhere the exhibits were over-run by
a party of schoolchildren, some fascinated, some thrilled with excitement
and others bent on destruction. Four technicians work continually on new
exhibits and running repairs, and I found only a few plores that were out
of action.


What makes the Exploratory different is that the exhibits do not lecture.
They demonstrate a phenomenon, ask questions and give enough of an answer
to stimulate further learning. There is a model suspension bridge, over
which visitors walk while watching how the suspending cords behave. Red,
green and blue projectors beam matching images which mix on screen to create
images in full colour, before the operator turns one or more of them off.
A cathode-ray tube misbehaves when stroked with a magnet. A chair on a turntable
plays tricks when whoever is sitting on it holds a spinning gyroscope and
tries to turn it through an angle.

Large parabolic mirrors reflect invisible heat rays making the back
of a hand feel warmer than the front. When a button is pressed a submerged
heater in a water tank creates what looks like smoke, thanks to the lens
patterns formed by the vertical water currents. Fog spins in a vortex to
create a miniature tornado. Speech modulates the beam of a laser. Natural
objects, like rock, display readings of radioactivity. A change in air pressure
over the surface of a board demonstrates how low friction transport works.
Creating waves in a water tank with a hand paddle turns a wave-power generator
to light a lamp.

So far the exhibits cover electricity, electromagnetism, light, sound
and mechanics. There is not much chemistry, but Rio Tinto Zinc has just
agreed to sponsor a chemistry section. This Christmas, there are events
involving electronic music.

Entry is Pounds sterling 2.50 for adults, Pounds sterling 1.80 for children,
with the usual concessions and special rates for school parties. The Exploratory
is open seven days a week from 10 am to 5 pm. But it is closed for Christmas.
For precise dates, and party bookings, telephone Bristol (0272) 252008.