Rated as one of the world’s best!
By Albert Fenech

There are some developments in our small Maltese Islands that never cease to amaze me with the wonders they create.
Malta’s Esplora Interactive Science Centre has won recognition with a most prestigious award with the country’s ESPLORA INTERACTIVE SCIENCE CENTRE being named as one of the world’s TOP TEN CENTRES by the world-renowned TripAdvisor in its 2024 Travellers’ Choice Awards as a World Attraction.
The award was based on Exceptional Quality, Global Recognition, and Visitor Satisfaction.
So, what is this Esplora, what is its history and what does it consist of?
One of the many wonders of the Maltese Islands are its ancient and stately buildings stretching back many centuries and all have a particular and fascinating heritage story of their own.
One of these is used to house Esplora to provide a great contrast between architectural heritage and modern science and its wonders.
In 1675, Maltese architect Lorenzo Gafa was commissioned by the Italian Knight of the Order of St John, Fra Giovanni Bichi, to build a summer house for him in the south eastern part of Malta, in Kalkara.
Just over 150 years later, the Knights were ousted by the French, in turn ousted by the British under Lord Horatio Nelson. As a civil building the villa passed into British hands and King George IV granted permission to the Admiralty for the building to be transformed into a Naval Hospital and the foundation stone for renovations was set on 23rd March, 1830 and the building renamed as the Royal Naval Hospital, BIGHI.
Obviously it had a major role in two World Wars and various British conflicts around the Mediterranean. After that it was used for different utilities.
In the early 21st Century there was already a clear vision that the world’s future and its education would be based on scientific development and the now politically independent Malta Government had to prepare beforehand to satisfy this.
The vacant and spacious Villa Bighi premises were chosen as the ideal spot for this and on an investment of almost 30 million euro, the state-of-the-art Interactive Esplora Science Centre was launched in late October 2016 by then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and the Malta Council for Science Technology and Development Chairman, Jeffrey Pullicino Orland.
This occupies a space of 22,000 square metres and today hosts hundreds of exhibits meant to fascinate all, but mainly children and youths and which enables them hands-on continuation performances on the hundreds of scientific installations provided.
So, if one were to visit Esplora today, what would be the main features?
The Ground Floor

On the Ground Floor, one of the most popular galleries, Motion, is also one of the loudest! Watch the faces of youngsters as they light up as they internalise Newton’s Laws of Motion.
Linear motion, inertia, conservation of energy, volume displacement, friction, aerodynamics, gravity and mechanical advantage – all are included.

In OPTICS you will step into a world of light, and explore reflection, refraction, colour, vision, absorption, spectroscopy, and even peer into an invisible world.
ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM can be tricky concepts to explain, but exhibits allow visitors to explore them hands-on! Learners can connect an intruder-alarm circuit, explore magnetic fields, convert electricity to magnetism and back again, and interact with the plasma globe.

HUMAN BODY – this gallery is all about human life science where you can evaluate your diet, view your heart rate, put together a 3D heart, examine different body cells and trace your way through the digestive system while in ECO-LIFE learners can take quizzes about product materials and energy use at home, build their dream home and play a waste-sorting game.
The EARTH gallery brings earthquakes, volcanoes and tornados to your fingertips and uses an amazing ‘Planet Earth’ exhibit to explore the surface of Earth as well as other planets.
The Planetarium

Proceed to the upper halls and the aptly globular PLANETARIUM with its galleries including a MEDIA STUDIO offering a hands-on experience with sound looping, stop-motion animation, dubbing and even a green screen (mind the zombies!).

ENGINEERING AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS contains exhibits which raise issues of hacking and privacy whilst the Engineering gallery is full of opportunities for building and creating. The ‘3-D Thinking’ exhibits, on the other hand, get students to engage with geometry, topology, recursion, logic and spatial puzzles.

The NATURE OF MATTER gallery is all about chemistry and allows students to investigate materials science by constructing molecules (including DNA!), to learn about smart materials, design their own fireworks display and explore an interactive digital periodic table.
Two rooms of SOUND AND ILLUSIONS create music and enables watching of waveforms on the screen in the ‘Sound’ gallery that are astounding.
The UNIVERSE is an interaction of exhibits in the Planetarium building to explore the wonders of nebulae and black holes, and challenge your friends to the Solar System quiz. But be quick… to win, you need to run and be the first to stand on the correct answer!

Finally, LIVING IN SPACE you get a taste of life in space including finding out how astronauts use the toilet on the International Space Station, and identify planets that may host extra-terrestrial life!
On the whole, a scintillating day of experiences into the very inner fibre of today’s updated scientific developments and if you have youngsters with you it will be difficult to drag them away and you will have to promise them to return.
To help complete the day visit the very near-by Marea Restaurant offering Chinese and Japanese snacks, lunches and dinners to relax, wine and eat with panoramic views of the Grand Harbour stretching out before you.
Location: Kalkara, Malta south east, road and public bus service no problem or take a ferry across the Grand Harbour from Valletta.
Phone +356 2360 2201; 2360 2300; 2360 2301
Email: quality@esplora.org.mt
ALBERT FENECH
salina46af@gmail.com