[Geeky Guide] Celebrating 5 Years of Geekery With The Mind Museum

September 1 marked the first anniversary of this little blog, The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything. Since the blog began in 2006, we've published over 1,900 blog post and managed to attain over 100,000 page views. I know it doesn't seem like much when compared to the bigger name blogs, but given I still juggle a full-time job and other activities (i.e. having a social life), I'm still really happy with how far the blog has come. And as always, I'll continue in my efforts to provide meaningful geeky insights into various books, movies and whatever else I come across.

I was supposed to put something together on the anniversary date itself, however my partner Tobie and I were pretty busy that day exploring some of the planned exhibits for the soon-to-be-completed Mind Museum in Taguig. We were some of the lucky few who were invited to try out the exhibits and provide feedback to the Mind Museum team and needless to say Tobie and I had a LOT of fun. We had only planned to be there an hour and yet before we realized it we had been there for about two.

When you think about it, this was a great way to celebrate the anniversary of the Geeky Guide. What could be geekier than testing out different exhibits meant to demonstrate various scientific principles, right?


Now the Mind Museum is mapped out to be divided into five main galleries covering different areas of scientific interest. There were over 30 sample exhibits at the NBC Tent that afternoon that tried to give us test patrons a taste of what the museum was offering. I could spend all day discussing each display, but for now let me just highlight a few of the exhibits that stood out for me and present a feel for the museum as it stands now.

Take this exhibit for example. At first glance it just looks like a blown-up model of the head of a dragonfly. However when you peer in from the other side, you're now treated to a view of the world from the perspective of a bug! There are built-in cameras that simulate how a dragonfly sees the world and you're free to swing the head around to explore the immediate area. Pretty cool.

This was a fun way to illustration the motion of a whirlpool. Pressing the yellow button triggers the release of a ping-pong ball into the whirlpool chamber and you can even release multiple balls to track their path down the funnel. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun with this one as well.

This one was definitely a personal favorite of mine given it's simplicity and yet its high degree of interactivity combined with being very educational. The model is designed to show how mountains are formed via plate tectonics. Thus when you push the metal bar at the front of the display, you'll slowly cause a mountain to form as the plates collide. Genius! I can so imagine kids learning a lot from this model alone!

Of course some of the models weren't quite amazing, but then we're also seeing this displays outside the context of their final galleries. That may account for what made some of them a little boring or why some of them didn't work.

The best example of this would be this display for the evolution of mammals. Instead of something more complex or a display that presented a greater degree of interaction, instead we got a series of cardboard cutouts that just stood there. Plus they didn't even look like they were in scale. I REALLY hope the final model doesn't look like this since I don't know what to get from this.

Otherwise, The Mind Museum still looks like it's going to be a really exciting place to visit for geeks young and old. With just over 30 exhibits, Tobie and I spent over two hours of our day just going from display to display, trying to solve some of the various puzzles and basically just having fun while learning. We really like the direction the museum is trying to take and we hope they realyl push the envelop in terms of creating fun, interactive exhibits to be enjoyed by kids and adults alike.

I'm really glad that Tobie and I decided to help sponsor the museum and we can't wait for it to be ready for viewing by the public.

So Happy Birthday Geeky Guide! And here's to looking forward to another year of geekery and eventually new things to explore like The Mind Museum.

Here are the rest of the photos from the event: