{Scotland} Inspire, Explore, Discover at Dundee Science Centre
Last month, my husband and elder boy headed to Dunfermline for their latest karate grading. As our youngest was recovering from a head injury, having fallen off his top bunk, he had to sit out the grading so I took him to Dundee Science Centre for the day to cheer him up.
Dundee Science Centre is open year round on Wednesdays and Weekends, and on selected additional days during school holidays. Entry is via a specific time slot, but if you are early you can wait in the cafe which has some play areas too.
The exhibits span two levels. The lower level is split across four main zones. In the ‘We Are Inventing Zone’, you can explore air flow at the Air Table, play with cogs and pipes on the Tinkering Wall, or create with giant foam building blocks or the ‘Rigamajig’.
In the ‘Brilliant Brain Zone’, you can discover how our brain and our senses work together to help us understand the world around us. Explore the giant eyeball, and challenge yourself with optical illusions and other brain games. Or find out how different eye diseases affect your sight.
The ‘We Are Discovering Zone’ has a wide range of exhibits – create a stop motion film, capture a water drop with high-speed photography, play the climate change game, get hands on in the augmented reality sandbox, explore drift and spinning forces, and more!
Finally, the ‘We Are Exploring Zone’ is particularly aimed at younger children, but popular with everyone. There’s a tree house with slide, a construction zone with giant crane, a light peg doodle board, and a Water Works feature complete with Archimedes screw.
There’s also a fifth zone, which I didn’t take any pictures of, which is a Sensory Zone where you can relax and interact with lights and sounds, and is aimed at children who feel overwhelmed or need to take some time out.
The upper level of the Science Centre, is dedicated to the ‘Medical Marvels’ exhibit. Here you can immerse yourselves in the fascinating world of medical technology, and trace the development of technologies in medicine over time. Hands on activities cover ultrasound, different types of endoscopy, open vs key hole surgery, an anatomy table, and a reaction wall. Younger children will have fun reassembling the skeleton puzzle, or tending to the bears in the teddy bear’s hospital.
We had an absolute amazing time at Dundee Science Centre, and our 2.5 hour slot felt much too short. Of course, we discovered our favourite bits (the spinning forces and the water works) when we only had 20 minutes left!
Since everyone enters at the same time, when a new session starts, it can be quite busy in the first zone and creates a bit of a bottle neck, so my tip would be to go straight through to the back and work tour way back to the front. If you have younger kids, I’d also recommend leaving Medical Marvels to last. Whilst it’s very interesting, it’s probably the exhibit least aimed at the youngest visitors, so if you run out of time you won’t be as disappointed as if you run out of time for one of the other zones.
How to get there
Location: 14 Greenmarket, Dundee DD1 4QB
Take the train from Edinburgh Waverley or Haymarket to Dundee, and then it’s just a ten minute walk to the Science Centre. Total travel time is around 1 hour 20 minutes to 1 hour 40 minutes, depending on which train you take. The trains heading for Aberdeen are faster, as they make fewer stops, whereas the trains that terminate in Dundee take longer
Good to know
Cost: £6 adults, £4.50 children age 3-15, £3.50 children age 1-2, under 1s free.
Opening Hours: Open year round on Wednesdays and weekends, and on selected extra days during school holidays. Café Create is open daily, and offers a play area, lego table, books to read, and Discovery Boxes to explore.
Sensory bags: For those that need them, there are Sensory Bags available from reception.
