If you don’t have the opportunity to go to the huge PetroSains in Kuala Lumpur, then PetroSains PlaySmart in Kuching is a way to get an idea, and experience of what the science centre had to offer.
The centre has been open for a couple of years now, and it had literally transformed the Kuching Civic Centre back into life after the place somewhat became rather pale in comparison to its past glory days.
It was the school holidays, so my daughter and I had some free time, and so I figured it would be a good experience to introduce her to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) through fun activities which is what PetroSains Playsmart Kuching had to offer.
Anticipation and getting there
I told my daughter about our trip there and she was excited about it.
At first, I wanted to go on a Monday, but then realized that the centre closes every Monday and only opens from Tuesday onwards, from 9AM to 5PM.
That said, we decided to go to PetroSains at 10AM so that we weren’t too early and had time to eat breakfast.
The only way to get there was to either drive or take Grab (ride hailing services).
I decided to drive since there’s plenty of parking space at the grounds of the Kuching Civic Centre.
STEM games and more
Upon arriving, I realized that the PetroSains PlaySmart was the main attraction at the the Civic Centre.
People were heading in droves to the centre, and when we entered, it was packed.
Despite having over 50 STEM related exhibits to experience and interact with, we had to wait for our turn to do each of them, which included the hurricane-line storm enclosure which propelled winds of up to 435 kilometres per hour.
We tried almost all of the exhibits, but some were hard to try out as it had quite a queue.
There wasn’t also anybody manning the exhibits so it was literally ‘grab and go’ sort of thing.
Also, each exhibits had it’s own explanation which one could read prior to doing the activity. However, if you stand there too long to read, there’s already others wanting to try out the exhibits, so that made reading and properly digesting what was on display rather difficult.
That said, I do not remember the names of each exhibit station at the centre because I was busy explaining Science concepts and exhibitions to my daughter based on what was written on the infographics at each station.
I do however recall we tried almost all of the stations which include the air rocket station, interactive football hologram station, air race car station, and more.
Other exhibits were about pressure, gravity, electricity, hurricane-like storm enclosure, Mindball (to test thinking ability), F1 car racing, and oil drilling, which of course is related to Petronas itself.
There’s also a Makers Studio workshop on-going, but it had limited seats and was very popular that booking reservations were full until 3PM at 11AM.
We just couldn’t wait that long as there was too many people and by 1PM, was already hungry.
A treat for kids and adults
After we left, my daughter told me she wanted to go back.
I’m not sure which station interest her most, but I thought the rocket launching, hurricane-like storm enclosure and Mindball was interesting.
I also liked the electricity connectivity exhibit, but I couldn’t figure out how to connect all the lines and would have like more time to dwell on it to get the bell and also fans running.
Anyway, we left after spending two hours in the centre, as they centre announced they are closing for their noon break.
It was indeed a good two hours well spent at the centre, and I do hope the centre can be expanded to be even better in the future.
For now, there’s already talks to make a Kuching Astronomy Centre, so I am looking forward to that.
More information on PetroSains PlaySmart Kuching
That said, if you need more information on PetroSains PlaySmart Kuching, do not hesitate to check the links below because they maybe useful to know more about the whole place.
- Learn more about PetroSains PlaySmart Kuching
- Buy STEM books
- Learn more about Planetarium Sultan Iskandar
- Learn about Kuching Civic Centre
- Find more museums and libraries in Kuching
