inspiredkids: 29.5.11: Insectmania @ Singapore Science Centre

After breakfast, we left for the Singapore Science Centre. My GPS was peculiarly slow that morning, and just wouldn't locate where Singapore Science Centre was. I asked a couple who were boarding a bus for directions. They said that SSC is in Jurong. After the car moved a little, my GPS managed to detect Snow City at Jurong, and we followed the GPS which finally led us there.

Singapore Science Centre was located at 15 Science Centre Road, Singapore. As we were members of the ASTC passport program (as members of Pusat Sains Negara), we had free admissions for 5 people.

It was a large place and even though it was the second day of the Singapore and Malaysia school holidays, it wasn't as packed as I had expected. We took our time to explore the whole place.

At different time during the day, there were various presentations. We attended the Insectmania presentation which was held in one of the auditoriums. It was an interesting presentation as I learnt several things which we didn't know before.

Ant essence - capsules containing dried and crushed ants, to be consumed for health benefits

Dried exoskeleton of beetles and bugs. I remember when I was in secondary school, my mum bought these from a chinese medicine shop to boil some tonic for me. I told her that it looked strangely like bugs, but with holes where the legs should be. She denied and I refused to drink it.

Life cycle of insects

After the presentation, everyone was invited to come to the front table to take a look at the insects there. The facilitators there were very friendly and tried to answer our questions as best they could.

The Madagascar hissing cockroach. We didn't hear it hiss though.

The boys were encouraged to hold the large cockroach. It was said to be clean as it was bred in captivity in the SSC itself and was fed with only plants and vegetables. S bravely held the cockroach.