Rua Comandante Francisco Manuel
Faro
Algarve
8000-250
00351289890920
The sea (o Mar) is the central theme of the permanent exhibition of the Algarve Ciência Viva Science Centre. The exhibition takes the visitor through different facets of the marine and coastal biosphere of the blue planet, through a dive from the surface to the depths of the oceans, in an exploratory trip which helps unlock the secrets of the origin and the future of life on our planet.
The exhibition interactive modules cover the evolution of oceans, its biodiversity, and the physics of the sea, the environmental and even the economic aspects of human activity related to with the sea. A significant number of modules help to clarify many of the doubts about the physical and geological phenomena associated with the sea and the forces of nature that govern the daily life in the marine and coastal biosphere.
Among the interactive modules we highlight the apalpário (touch tank), the atmosphere and ocean currents movements, the oceans evolution from the Panthalassa to the existing oceans, the volcano, the earthquake simulator (shaking table), the sedimentation tube, the tides, the vortex, the tornado, the surface tension, the Bermuda’s triangle, the Magdeburg hemispheres, the Ocean base, the light through ocean depth, the aquariums of tropical and Algarve waters, and the multimedia applications dedicated to the ocean floors and to the tides. The visitors can also interact with a number of modules dedicated to the physics and chemistry of light and colour, to the brain and to the senses. There are also modules dedicated to the solar system.
Outside the main building, there is the "endless energy" cicada’s garden featuring interactive modules dedicated to renewable energies, where there are “artificial life” and even "technological bugs” powered by the electricity produced in the local solar and wind micro-generation stations. Some "specimens" have the ability to interact with the visitors, and there are "flowers" that react to visitor’s presence. The visitors can also give life to a cascade of energy using their own energies.
