The title sounds capricious, but in my opinion Copernicus Science Center is the best museum in Warsaw. John says it is a big claim to make, but I am not changing my mind. In any case it would be hard to find a better science centre or science museum here.
Let’s start with some history, or at least with remembering who Copernicus was and why his name deserves to be on such a centre. Nicolaus Copernicus lived from 1473-1543 and is best known his heliocentric model of the universe – where the sun is the centre of the universe, not the earth. We probably wouldn’t be wrong in calling him one of the greatest men . The great man who was a polyglot, astronomer, mathematician, physician, translator, diplomat and even an economist came from what was then Royal Prussia and nowadays is Poland.
So, getting back to more modern times…
The most important thing to me is that the museum is not boring and anyone can enjoy it, it really doesn’t matter what age you are. Even the smallest ones can have fun by playing and subconsciously discovering the laws of physics. Do be aware that this place can involve you so much that you might forget the time and get lost in the space and all of the activities discovering different areas of science. I should admit that after three hours my brain got a bit tired with all of the information, excitement and surpises in such a short time. What I am trying to say that you should probably prepare yourself to spend many hours there.
When we visit traditional museums or galleries usually we can’t have much direct interaction with the exhibits, but at the Copernicus Science Center in Warsaw you can. The whole point is to try, experience and to understand how things works. Challenge yourself to complete tasks and learn. This is an amazing oasis for teachers who want to make science classes super interesting and enjoyable, even the most ignorant pupil will learn new things.
A few of the things to discover include; finding out how loud you can scream, having your portrait drawn by an industrial robot, discovering how the weather guys from telly make forecasts, testing how high you can jump and how strong gravity is, realising that everyone can sleep on needles and it is not bad at all, getting a better understanding about optical illusions. The list could go on and on, you can test yourself and find out what is going on in your body when you are scared and so much more!
If you want to gain even more knowledge or get more action you can join robotics labs, chemistry labs, biology or physics labs. If you are a dreamer, want to pick a star to wish upon or just love space the planetarium is waiting for you as well!
If you are staying in Warsaw or nearby by for a longer period you could get a membership and make multiple visits to fulfill your scientific passions, and if you have kids they can join the Explorers Club. Maybe you just want to enjoy time with your kids, watching them developing new skills and making discoveries together, while they get absorbed in learning about science and critical thinking.
The center’s vision is: People shape a world that is friendly to them and to nature, by developing and applying science, and it truly presents this vision! I have never been a sciencey person, but for sure I am a curious beast and to understand fully I usually need to try, to experience or make an experiment by myself. In this place I had the chance to be an explorer and figure out some of science’s ‘secrets’.
The surroundings are great as well. We came before opening hours, since we arrived in Warsaw at about 6am, and found some activities that we could try outside. Like playing music with tiles, discovering acoustics, and trying to weigh ourselves on the huge scales.
In John’s previous article you can read that we actually gained a fresh positive view of Warsaw in general and this place definitely helped with that!
Please don’t be mistaken there are many other great places and museums to visit in Warsaw for example Neon Museum (we haven’t visit it yet, but it is on our list for the next time), the Pawiak Prison Museum or many others to suit whatever your interests might be. Try out this link, it might help you choose, but for me this one is the best!