Ontario Science Centre
From Free net encyclopedia
Ontario Science Centre (OSC) is a science museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, near the Don Valley Parkway about 11 km northeast of downtown on Don Mills Road just south of Eglinton Avenue East. It is built down the side of a wooded ravine formed by one branch of the Don River.
Planning for the centre started in 1961 during Toronto's massive expansion of the late 1950s and 1960s. In 1964 the famous Toronto architect Raymond Moriyama[1] was hired to design the site. The innovative design, consisting of three main buildings connected by a series of bridges and escalators, follows the natural contours of the Don River ravine, into which the Centre descends. Construction started in 1966 with plans to make it a part of the city's 1967 Canadian Centennial celebrations. It was officially named the Centennial Centre of Science and Technology. However construction was not complete in 1967, and the OSC did not open to the public until two years later, in September of 1969.
At the time the OSC was famous around the world for its "hands on" approach to science, which was later duplicated in San Francisco's Exploratorium and Detroit's Museum of Science and Technology. Unlike the traditional museum where the exhibits are there to be looked at, the majority of the exhibits at the OSC were interactive, while many others were live demonstrations (metalworking for instance). Its Communications room was particularly well-loved. It had a number of computerized displays, including a very popular tic-tac-toe game run on a PDP-11.
The centre was a huge attraction in the 1970s, but by the early 1980s visiting rates had dropped considerably. Most of the displays were the originals, hopelessly outdated and a fair percentage of the displays were broken or damaged. Layers of bureaucracy made it almost impossible to get money (even small amounts) to fix anything, and the staff basically gave up. By the early 1990s employee morale was so low that it was rated the worst place to work in the Ontario civil service.
During the 1990s these issues were addressed by opening the OSC to corporate funding. Today the decay of the 1980s is gone, and the majority of the displays are new. In 1996 the province's first OMNIMAX theatre opened in an expanded entranceway area, and additional changes soon followed. The most recent of these changes is the $40 million Agents of Change project, the final phase of which is opening in June 2006.
There are interactive and passive exhibits throughout the buildings. They feature everything in science and nature. They feature geology, the science of nature (in the west wing), Astronomical science, how to play music and technology in the south wing, some artifacts of science.
Recently, Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds 2: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies was displayed at the OSC. It displayed organs, slices of body parts, and even entire bodies, and has proved to be immensely popular. It was at the OSC until February 26, 2006.
The Ontario Science Center Secondary School (OSCSS) offers credited grade 12 University Preperation courses in physics, biology, chemistry and calculus. Students from all over Ontario apply and are selected to spend a semester at the OSCSS. The OSCSS offers enriched learning in small and informal classes of no more than 25 students. While at the Science Center, students earn practicum hours through volunteering and interacting with the vistors. They also get a unique chance to participate in the Mentorship Program, aimed at educating the students about the various jobs and career paths available.
The site of the original water fountain at the front is being rejuvenated to become the Exploration Plaza, opening in late 2006.