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| A family snow-tubing down the slope in Snow City |
Even though I’m not a great fan of creepy crawlies, I’m still
looking forward to a “Honey I shrunk the kids” experience and walk among
super-sized plants, flowers and insects in their latest Megabugs Return exhibit. Since
the successful debut of Megabugs in
1994, the return of Singapore’s largest and updated exhibition of insects aims
to help a new generation of people to understand and appreciate these tiny
creatures. At the thought of seeing live
specimens I suppress another shiver and firmly decide that wearing long pants
and thick socks is certainly comforting!
An iZ Hero interactive experience in the world’s first
interactive exhibition that provides fun and interactive game elements and
animated characters to empower children to confidently deal with cyber risks
also promises to be interesting. This
exhibit guides children aged between 6 and 13 and their parents in cyber
security awareness and safe and responsible online behaviour. Armed with a Gallery Map, I follow the signs
and the excited chatter of students and family groups to start my own edutainment
discovery trail in the Singapore Science Centre.
Freezing Fun
A short walk down a covered corridor takes me into Snow
City, South East Asia’s only permanent indoor snow chamber, next to the Science
Centre. The excitement is infectious as
I join a throng of visitors who are pulling on fleecy coats and padded
gloves. I’m glad for my thick socks as I
fit my feet into winter boots and clomp my way through a chilled room and let
the freezing temperatures in the Ice Gallery hit me.
 | |
| Peggy with Mohd Saiful Mohd Sahak, freezing in the Ice Gallery |
My eyes are riveted to a long queue of visitors on one side
of the slope with their arms clutching rubber tubes, waiting for their turn to
snow-tube down the 60-meter long snow slope.
On the other side, there is a charming Candy House for kids but the
excitement is clearly centered on the slope.
Thrill-seeking visitors are snow-tubing down individually or locked in
groups, in a tremendous rush accompanied by earsplitting screams – and they
promptly get up to join the queue again for their next exciting ride down!
Snow City is a popular destination to experience cool
respite in sub-zero temperatures and the joys of snow. I watch visitors bundled up in thick coats,
boots and gloves, frolic in snow drifts and the kids throwing snowballs at each
other. My face starts to freeze as I
catch snowflakes floating down in tropical Singapore’s Winter Wonderland and when
I speak my breath comes out in tiny puffs!
Megabugs Return!
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| Walking among the megabugs in the exhibit |
I walk through an entrance designed with black Giant Forest
Ants crawling across an ant hill and I pause as my eyes quickly adjust to the
dim lighting in a tunnel. The clever use
of shifting lights create an impression of a spinning tunnel that will shrink
visitors as they step into the exhibition space modeled after a larger than
life backyard. Bathed in an eerie light
and surrounded by giant animatronic insects set among towering blades of grass,
it certainly gives me the feeling that I’ve truly shrunk!
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| Brave boy having an experience with a Hissing Cockroach! |
I must admit that this is the first time I’m standing so
close to creepy crawlies without feeling squeamish. That’s probably because I’m also marveling at
the science behind the construction of the 14 specially built gigantic
creatures that will move at regular intervals.
Next to each exhibit of cockroach, centipede, grasshopper, praying
mantis, dragonfly and mosquito, large light boxes display essential “Did you
know” information like its features, habitat, diet, lifespan, distribution as
well as predators and threats.
If I seem rather brave among the mega size creatures, I
don’t particularly feel the same when I see the live specimens. Hidden among leafy fronds inside a glass
showcase, are the cleverly camouflaged stick insects and it takes me a while to
identify them. When I glance at the next
glass showcase, I get a sudden flashback to the 1996 musical comedy, “Joe’s
Apartment” because it is filled with a colony of Hissing Cockroaches!
Cyber Health
 |
| Walk through this capsule to Midnunvora for iZ Hero fun |
I leave the Megabugs to find my way into a shuttle –
actually an elevator – that whisks me up into the mysterious world of
Midnunvora where young people are encouraged to be iZ Heroes as they pick up
skills on cyber wellness and learn how to interact safely on line. I walk through a capsule with posters on its
walls, emblazoned with messages that bombard youths with tempting requests to
stay on line. At the entrance to iZ
Headquarters, I meet with wise old Master Naam, the yoda-like conscience who
motivates and empowers youths to respond appropriately to cyber threats.
“Safety in the real world and in the online world” is the
message for children and parents as they experience the 20-minute long
exhibit. Through info plaques and
interactive games, they learn to recognize what “infollution” is, a word coined
from information + pollution, and the many dangers that lurk in the online
community. As more young children start
to use smart phone devices, holistic cyber wellness education for children is
vital because they may be accidentally exposed to harmful content or
individuals online.
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| Students play interactive games to learn to be iZ Heroes |
Developed by infollutionZERO, a non-profit organization
based in South Korea, in collaboration with Nanyang Technological University
and the National Institute of Education, the iZ Hero experience includes a web
game, online portal and comic book in addition to the interactive digital
exhibition. In the final part of the
exhibit, I pause to watch a “Think you know…” documentary by the BBC and its strong
message gives me the shudders. As I take
the shuttle out of Midnunvora, I’m struck with the sobering truth that our
children can easily fall prey to people with evil intentions online.
Fast Facts
Singapore Science Centre is located at 15 Science Centre
Road, Singapore 609081. Open daily from
10am to 6pm. Entrance fees: Adult S$9,
Child (3 – 16 years) S$5, Senior Citizens (55 years and above) S$6. Megabugs Return! is on until 18 August 2013
at the Annexe; Entrance fees: Adult S$16, Child (3 – 12 years) S$13. Singapore Science Fest 2013 is now on till August 4. Visit website: www.science.edu.sg
A version of this article was published in The New Straits Times, Life & Times on 25 July 2013
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