Techmania Science Center

The space is one giant hall, with many individual exhibits sectioned off. It’s not that big, but the way it’s laid out, you could lose track of your kids easily. Sound carries easily though, so play “Marco Polo”, to find each other.

Apart from the issue of getting separated, there’s not much danger here. We did have an accident on the spinning disc machine that rotates you around depending how you tilt the wheel – some fingers got crushed. Only afterwards did I see the sign – in Czech and English – warning you not to touch the wheel.

Me: “Kids, today we’re going to a Science Museum!”
Girl: “Yay!!!”
Boy: “Aaaw, I don’t want to go to a museum!” Then I showed him the website, and pointed to a man with his arm on fire. “Cool!” So off we went. In the entrance hall are four bike/car contraptions. The kids were on them like flies, of course, and we were looking around for those disapproving faces and getting ready to pull our kids back off. But it was actually OK for them to drive around in these things. What a great welcome to a day of pressing buttons, moving things around, looking through things, and getting all the hands-on experience we wanted.

When talking about any kid-friendly science museum, you have to compare it to iQ Park in Liberec. Techmania isn’t nearly as big, and some of its exhibits are the same. But not all. And Techmania has a few things going for it. The English-language support is better – everything is marked with clear and correct English and German. The hall itself is interesting. This is where Škoda once made trains – and the oldest surviving example of their electric-powered 2Elo dominates the back wall. Also, it is now home to David Černý’s controversial sculpture “Entropa.” I showed the gigantic art piece to my 6-year old and asked what she thought of it. “Wow! They’re building a giant climbing frame! Please can I go on it?”

We visited the center on a Sunday and it was not crowded at all. We had fun for hours. We made sand patterns, sparks and rainbows. We drew perspective drawings on glass, spoke through a giant balloon, learned how airport security works, saw a Marx steam engine demo, played spies, and shone light through a water lens. My husband and I took a little break at a cute faux French café – there was no food, but it was pleasant under the striped awning of Chez James. Only later did we realize that the table where we took a break was bugged – it was part of the spy exhibit – and someone could have been listening to every word we said! We never did see a man with his arm on fire, but both kids definitely thought it was very much worth the trip.