It's time to get creative with the science of light at Scienceworks! 

Illuminate is a new temporary museum exhibition  (developed in-house by Museums Victoria) that explores the science and technology of light with playful hands-on interactive stations.

Experiment with light sensors, lenses and lasers to explore colour, sight and the way light moves through different materials. Discover what light is, how we see it, and how we can harness its power!

Learn about the science of light

In this fascinating exhibition, you will explore light and its impact on perception through colour, sound and activity.

The neon-lit, colourful and highly Instagrammable exhibition is split into six festival zones, each exploring a different aspect of sight and light, as well as a rest zone to regroup and relax.

These zones include:

The Refractory – use tools that bend light to make things appear bigger or closer in order to see things better…

In Sensor Sonic, dance through sensors to make percussive beats, spin dials to program music with colour and scan barcodes to create your own soundscape…

Wonder Vision lets you disappear behind an invisibility shield and find out how our eyes see by playing with a simple camera that turns everything upside down… 

Inside the Chroma Zone, mix assorted colours by adding or removing parts of the visible light spectrum.  

Light & Shade is where you'll get to learn about how light travels in a straight line, what happens when it is blocked, and how a shadow is cast. Make sure to grab your friends and family, get up on stage, and dance with shadows.  

Finally, the Mirror Mirror zone is where you'll be able to create patterns of colour with a giant kaleidoscope and experiment with your appearance using a mix of image morphing mirrors.

If you're going to the opening weekend of Illuminate: How Science Comes to Light and to Scienceworks’ upcoming winter school holiday program, then you're in for a treat. You'll not only get to enjoy this awesome exhibit but also the amphitheatre shows and activities that celebrate the science behind light!

Here are some of the shows and activities you can look forward to:

• The Colour Combo Show |12:30pm & 1:30pm

Light makes our world colourful! Explore how adding and subtracting different light creates a vivid array of colours.  What would the world really look like through rose-tinted glasses? Discover colour in this 20-minute live show jam-packed with vibrant demonstrations. 

• Glow Lab | 10:30am – 3:00pm

Explore light and colour in Glow Lab. Make your own party hat and decorate it with invisible UV pens and fluorescent markers to see it glow under UV light. You can even take your colourful creation home! 

• Light Demonstrations | 10:30am – 3:00pm

Have some fun with mini light demonstrations in the STEM Lab. Can you bend light? Write your name using light? Or trick your brain into seeing colour that is not there? 

Illuminate: How Science Comes to Light is a neon-filled festival-like exhibition that combines fun with education. It's a truly impressive, immersive experience that kids of all ages and even the adults will enjoy!

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Visit other Scienceworks exhibitions including Ground Up, Beyond Perception and Think Ahead

Eat at family-friendly cafes Duchess of Spotswood and Doyle & Sons

Indoor things to do in Melbourne with kids

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