TAMAN PINTAR

TAMAN PINTAR SCIENCE PARK

Address: Jl. Panembahan Senopati 1-3 yogyakarta,indonesia
GPS Coordinate: S7°48'4.6" E110°22'2.3"












Have you ever imagined that there's a parabola that can whisper? Or a wall that can sing? Well, you can find them in the Taman Pintar Science Park, Yogyakarta.

TAMAN PINTAR SCIENCE PARK - From the Whispering Parabolic Dishes to the Singing Wall

In that sunny day, Angga (5) is whispering something into a parabolic dish and put his ear on it. Doni (6), his classmate, is doing the same thing in front of another parabolic dish. Well, they are not trying to talk and to have a conversation with the parabolic dishes. They are playing the Whispering Parabolic Dishes, one of the educating games in the Taman Pintar Science Park. Located in Panembahan Senopati Street 1-3. The Taman Pintar Science Park starts to be one of the favorite theme parks in Yogyakarta. When we visits this park, there are crowds of hundreds kids in front of the park.

Just after we go through the front gate, we will be welcomed by the area called the Playground Arena. The road from the gate is divided into 2 by a corridor made of 3 triangle poles in each side. These poles will spray water and make a water corridor. Unfortunately, they only operate this water alley on special occasions. In the end of the alley, there is a gong with "Gong Perdamaian Nusantara (sarana persaudaraan dan pemersatu bangsa)" written on a ribbon. This sentence means "The Indonesian archipelago bell, the tool of unifying the nation and brotherhood". There are also the logo of all Indonesian provinces and regencies all around the gong.

A variety of interesting and educating games with intriguing names can be found in this Playground Arena. In addition to Water Corridor, there are Whispering Parabolic Dishes, Singing Walls, Storytelling Pipe, Spectrum Color Disc, Dancing Water, Stone Forum, Smart Footprint, My Beautiful Village, Pulley System, Tree House, Shaking Bridge, Seesaw, and Sand Castle.

These games are designed to improve the child's interest in science. The Whispering Parabolic Dishes for example, is when two people standing back to back in front of twin parabolic dishes which are 10 meters away each other. If one person whispers a sentence to the parabolic dish in front of him, the other person will be able to hear it from his parabolic dish. This game teaches about the principle of wave propagation. In this case, the dishes have a function as a conductor to deliver the sound wave to each focus point. Meanwhile, The Singing Wall is a red wall with various size drums on it. These drums produce different tones. This game shows the relation between the size of the drums and the tones they produce.

There are also huge trees and grass gardens complete with a placard with "please do not walk all over me." But unfortunately, either because they did not see the placard or they do not care about it, some parents and adults are actually sitting on the grass and eat some food just like they are on a picnic ground. This Playground Arena is also equipped with a stand that sells drinks and various snacks.

Kid-only Zone

In between the Playground Arena, there is an Early Childhood Education Zone, which is only allowed for 2-7 years old kids. This zone is divided into 2, are: west building and east building.

Because of the age’s requirements, we could not come into those buildings, but from the information boards in front of them, we could see that the west building is divided into the waiting room, the technology and science room, Library, profession Room, and Cultural and Religious Room. Meanwhile, the East Room is divided into Waiting Room, Kids Computer Room, Block Puzzle Room, Karaoke and Performances Room, and Adventure Room

Oval Building

After walking around the Playground Arena, we decided to go into the Oval Room. As we come in, we will get into the lobby with 2 TV screens in the left and right side of the floor that’s display the videos about how the universe formed, pre historic life, etc. From the lobby, we can walk through a short underwater tunnel that get through a fresh water aquarium where we can see various kinds of fishes such as catfish, carp, etc swimming freely.

Coming out of the tunnel, we was surprised by a dinosaurs roaring loudly. That roaring dinosaurs is the greeting for us before going into the Dome Area. Surviving from the dinosaurs, we get into a huge and high circular room. On the edge of this room, there are several booths that demonstrate simple technology tools such as Whims Hurst Machine, Van de Graft generator, water tracks, the map of Indonesia's geography complete with tiny lights that mark the colorful layout mountains, rivers, lakes, etc., automatic fire, flood detector, and the place to take wudhu that automatically on when we step on the floor. We also can see some of pictures and dioramas of prehistoric life in this room.

From that room, we can walk through a swirling corridor to the second floor with pictures of the world figures such as Copernicus, Einstein, etc. as well as posters of the planets in our solar system along the walls. In the second floor of the oval building, we can see videos about the universe and earth, earthquake simulator, tsunami detector and simulator, electrical displays, construction technology, telecommunications zone, and try science around the world zone.

Other than this Oval Building, there is also a square building where we can find a 4-D theater. The park manager also plans to build as Exhibition Hall, Audio Visual Room, Jogja Kid Radio, Souvenir Center, Basic Material and the Application of Science and Technology Zone, Science Laboratory, and Courses Classes.

Overall, the Taman Pintar Science Park is quite representative and educative, and worthy to be one of the alternative places to come with families and children.

Opening Hours
Tuesday - Friday: 09.00 - 16.00 WIB
Saturday - Sunday: 08.30 - 20.00 WIB
Closed on Monday (except on national holiday and school holiday season)

Ticketing
Playground: free
Gedung PAUD: IDR 500 / kid (2-7 years old)
Gedung Oval & Kotak: IDR 5,000 / kid, IDR 10,000 / adult
Gedung Memorabilia: IDR 1,000 / kid, IDR 2,000 / adult
Theatre 3D: IDR 15,000 / person