Event #3: San Diego Ruben H. Fleet Science Center

For my third event, I attended the Ruben H. Fleet Science Center located in San Diego's Balboa Park. This science center is an artistic masterpiece connecting science and math in an educational space. At this location there were several exhibits showing illusions, space projects, physics, robotics and much more. Many of the exhibits were meant to educate all ages and some were easy to understand. Combining art, math, and science is an attractive way to display the features and mechanisms behind each exhibit.
 

Although the majority of exhibits were meant for all ages, there was a small room along the top floor dedicated to younger children. The picture above shows myself at the children's section, which at first, it seems like a common play place. However, there were activities meant to challenge the child’s mind via science subjects. Physics played a major role in these activities. There were small tables where kids could build things and destroy them. These activities involved parents and their children in a fun science learning environment.  

Other exhibits, as seen in the picture above, were a challenge to understand. Using mirrors and reflections this exhibit displaced a hallucination of a spring. When I first saw this exhibit, my first reaction was to immediately put my hand in there. I kept searching for the spring but couldn’t find it.  By using light and mirrors, the image of a spring appears, where nothing is physically located. This is a very entertaining and mind puzzling exhibit to interact with and mind puzzling . 

The proper use of art is what makes this hallucination display exciting. Properly placing the right mirrors and shining the right light, resembles an artistic illusion. An artistic illusion that in a way plays with your mind. As we have learned in lecture the mind and brain can react in different ways based on experiences. This exhibit definitely gave me an unexpected experience.  My body knew I was going to touch a spring, but nothing was there.  This is how experiences send signals to the brain that trigger different physical sensations influencing our mental state. I was in a mental state of disbelief, and continuously kept trying to touch something that was not there.

Aside from the children’s section and hallucinating exhibits, the Ruben H. Fleet provides a wide variety of educational science games/exhibits. There is a NASA program that students can take part in by going through a space mission and completing the tasks real astronauts would perform. While I was there, they were also working on a new exhibit involving circus games. I was not sure of the purpose but it looked like they were attempting to connect circus games and science, there as a basketball toss game using beach balls and air propulsion. The San Diego Ruben H. Fleet Science Museum is a really entertaining and educational science museum that families should visit and check out.