The science & tech travel bucket list
Ten-year-old rafferty laight rounds up the world’s must-experience science and technology museums and galleries for kids.
1 Artscience Museum Singapore
This super-cool building looks like a lotus flower spaceship and has awesome exhibitions that combine art with science and technology. Into the Wild lets you virtually replant rainforests in Southeast Asia, and Future World: Where Art Meets Science lets you add your own touches and turns the digital artworks into something new. marinabaysands.com/museum
2 Exploratorium San Francisco, USA
This interactive science museum is way cool for kids with more than 650 hands-on exhibits. You can unleash your inner mad scientist as you learn and play. You can even dance with your own shadow, levitate, step inside a tornado and stop time. Sign me up. exploratorium.edu
3 City of Science and Industry Paris, France
Ooh la la! Who wouldn’t want to learn about science technology and maths inside a big shiny ball? Honestly, this museum is partly inside a man-made geode and it has amazing exhibits on everything from the brain, medicine and maths to energy, exploration and space. There’s even a kids’ city for little kids to play and learn. cite-sciences.fr/en
4 National Air & Space Museum Washington DC, USA
This mega museum is part of the Smithsonian and the ultimate place for space and flight nerds. It has the largest collection of historic air- and spacecraft in the world, including the Wright Brothers’ planes and Apollo space capsules, as well as a flight simulator, an IMAX theatre and the Einstein Planetarium. It’s totally fly! nasm.si.edu
5 Miraikan Tokyo, Japan
The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation is awesome for kids and has loads of interactive hands-on exhibits, play areas and experiments (with English explanations). And there are robots! This includes a super-cool humanoid robot called ASIMO who is legit like a real-life Baymax. miraikan.jst.go.jp/en/
6 Teamlab Borderless Tokyo, Japan
Is it an art gallery or is it a high-tech museum? I think it’s both. This digital wonderland has more than 50 interactive exhibits that are so crazy cool they will melt your mind. Visitors can become part of the technological art and even create their own illustrations that talk to the existing artworks and become part of them. borderless.teamlab.art
7 Science Museum London, United Kingdom
This epic museum has thousands of science artefacts on display including actual space capsules and rockets. Plus, there are awesome jet and space simulators, a ginormous IMAX 3D cinema and loads of hands-on exhibits, science shows and even a Chemistry Bar at Wonderlab. Mind blown! sciencemuseum.org.uk
8 Scienceworks Melbourne, Australia
This place has been designed so people can actually play with science and technology. There are gigantic machines, a planetarium, a rad Lightning Room and loads of awesome hands-on exhibitions that can show kids how and why things work in the most epic ways. museumsvictoria.com.au/scienceworks
9 Powerhouse Museum Sydney, Australia
With everything from trains and steam engines to space suits, this place brings science, technology and design to life. There are also workshops that will turn any kid into a STEM genius. Well, maybe not an actual genius, but there’s no harm trying, right? maas.museum/powerhouse-museum
10 Questacon Canberra, Australia
It’s pretty hard to find an Aussie kid who doesn’t love Questacon: The National Science and Technology Centre. There’s 200-plus mindbending exhibits including earthquake simulators, Mini-q for little kids and the Excite@q where you can take on a vertical-drop slide and play air hockey against a robot. Booyah! questacon.edu.au
11 Scitech Perth, Australia
The Scitech museum and planetarium rocks STEM learning in the biggest and best ways. Wannabe scientists can explore mapping and navigation with augmented reality, get hands-on in a CSIRO Lab Workshop and see ‘Ignite Your Curiosity’, a brilliant chemistry show with explosions and fireballs. Boom! Count me in. scitech.org.au