There’s nothing that puts a bigger smile on my face than watching my children having fun.

The boys’ school broke up for the summer on Wednesday, so I took Friday off to take them to the Winchester Science Centre, which houses 100 interactive educational exhibits intended to provide a fun environment for kids to engage with science: everything from learning about the science of sport to recycling.

By discovering basic scientific principles through play and learning almost without realising it, their experience is a far cry from the formal, textbook-driven method by which I was taught science in my schooldays – and much the better for it.

I grabbed this shot of them with my phone as they were using an exhibit that demonstrates how parachutes work. They must have played there for fully 20 minutes, viewing first-hand how an open parachute creates drag which slows the descent of a person or object. Yes, it was a lesson in basic physics, but most of all it was clearly something that gave them a lot of fun. And that’s the best way for anyone to learn, right?

Incidentally, here’s a quick video clip of the exhibit in action.  Cool, huh?

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