Kids Stop Singapore: Where Science and Technology Meet Fun (Part 2)

In Part 1 of this review of Kids Stop, Singapore’s newest science centre for children, I covered the areas in the main hall at Kids Stop. At the back of the main hall, there is a doorway that leads you out into a corridor that surrounds the omnitheatre. Here you will find a number of separate rooms with more interesting play/learning sections such as these:

First up is a room enticingly named Critters. Here you’ll find cages with live specimens of, yes, little critters. From cute little chickies, to weird and wonderful hermit crabs, to creepy crawlies like crickets. The kids enjoy peering in to the various enclosures and trying to stop the various creatures.

Cute little chicks in what looked to be an incubator.

Hello Mr Hermit Crab!

Look Mum! (I think those were millipedes that caught her attention.)

Next door was a big room with several other sections. The first on the left was Kiddie Theatre. This consisted of a green screen area where you place yourself in different scenarios like swimming under water, flying through the sky, etc. They even provide you with props and costumes you can dress up in to make the experience more authentic. There is also a performing stage – you can pick a song to sing, grab some instruments and perform on stage while your performance is being caught and recorded on camera. And my kids’ favourite – a car in front of a green screen so you can star in your own high speed car chase or have a dinosaur chase you ala Jurassic Park.

Look at us, we’re flying! (Yes, I decided I should have some fun too.)

That’s what it really looks like behind the camera! On the left you can see the variety of props that they have that you are free to use peeking out from the corner. Sadly my son wasn’t keen to try them.

My little performers on stage, getting a little assistance from Kong Kong.

Noey getting chased by a dinosaur while his sister walks out of the car, oblivious.

There is one more station that was of more interest to me, than the children. This was a device that allowed you to take multiple photographs and string them together to make a stop motion video. I’ve recently tried my hand at doing some stop motion videos recently with the husband and it wasn’t easy, though it was hugely satisfying to see it all come together. The machine here lets kids try their hand at the process and you can e-mail the completed outcome to yourself too.

The next sections were Math and Tinkering. The thing that most attracted Noey in these sections was… the set of hot wheels tracks and cars at the end! Meips liked the Duplo corner, and they both spent some time tinkering with the table where you can learn about volume by filling plastic shapes with little beads. There was also a wall of magnetic shapes to make tangrams.

Duplo! Always a hit with this family.

Making themselves busy at the table learning about the volumes of cylinders, pyramids and cuboids. (Really, they’re just filling up containers for fun.)

Meips contemplates her next move. You can see the wall for tangrams in the background.

We were not able to proceed any further as the Innovation Lab and Kitchen Lab were both not ready at that point in time. But I understand they will be conducting workshops there, including workshops with Lego and you know how our Lego-crazed family feels about that! We’ll definitely be back to check those out.

Overall, the kids had a fantastic time, and it was only because everyone was getting hungry that we managed to persuade them to leave after 2.5 hours. They’ve both asked to go back so I’m hoping to bring them this school holiday. Overall, I think it was Kids Stop is a lot of fun for their target age group of 18 months to 8 years. There is plenty to engage the kids and introduce science in an environment of play. I also liked that there were facilitators (“trained science communicators”) present at most sections to guide the kids. As I said in my earlier post, my main complaint is with the ticket prices — they aren’t cheap and accompanying adults have to pay to enter as well. Getting a membership does help and makes sense if you plan to visit more than once, which is very likely if your kids are anything like my kids!

(For admission fees, operating hours, please click here and scroll to the bottom.)

>> Click here for Part 1 of this review: Kids Stop Singapore: Hands-On Science Fun for Tots

Kids Stop
21 Jurong Town Hall
Singapore 609233
Web: www.kidsstop.edu.sg
Map & Directions: http://www.kidsstop.edu.sg/getting-here