“I like this machine,” said the little boy. “Look son this machine is better. It is made up of these… parts and works on the principle of…” explained the father. This is the snippet of conversation between father and his kid, that I overheard in Science Museum London while standing next to a sixteenth century machine.During my visits to five different science and technology (scitech) museums in my recent visit to UK, I witnessed the evolution, from conception to almost present day versions, of time measuring devices, calculators, computers, steam and internal combustion engines, farming machinery, mechanisms for underground transport, air force planes, space shuttle, helicopters, and numerous other fascinating things. But the most interesting thing I found was a large number of young children with their parents or teachers visiting these museums, curiously looking around and fascinated by the machines, asking questions to understand how these worked. The interest of grownup children was also spectacular who were doing their school assignments sitting besides old devices and sketching and writing about them. Not a single museum I visited, without such youngsters.

“How come a society that is giving opportunities to its young ones to get acquainted and fascinated with the progress in innovation in scitech will not continue to innovate?” I questioned myself and then continued to ponder, “Where are such opportunities in my country? Are there any such museums where we can take our kids to wonder; where their imaginations can flourish?

“Maybe we have nothing interesting to present before our younger generations? or perhaps we consider such places as luxuries and are not interested in setting them up,” I speculated.

Scitech museums, in my view, create amazing environments that are full of stories of human thinking and tinkering. They provide virtual tour into the history of human endeavours in which we can do time travel to past and come back to the future at our own pace. Such places are instrumental in providing a sense of continuity from past to present. This all helps to better understand and appreciate the progress and process of innovation and invention.

In modern societies, I have seen that scitech museums and parks are silently playing a very important role in the promotion of the culture of innovation and invention in scitech. These are not only passing on experiences of one generation to the next but also motivating and provoking younger generations to continue to think in novel ways and helping alleviate the psychological barriers to innovate and invent.

We, in Pakistan, do have but a very few scitech museums. The Lahore Science Museum, located within the University of Engineering and Technology on GT Road, is the first science museum in Pakistan. It is, though, more of a science park than a museum. Now it is an old ignored building. The excitement and wonderment, which I felt at UK scitech museums, have never been found whenever I visited this museum. Whether it is due to the lack of interest by people or availability of museum resources, we cannot, anyway overrule the necessity of the science museums.

In my humble opinion government should take a leading role in establishing new and revamping a few old scitech museums and parks. Even the affluent should not hesitate to take the initiative in setting up such places at a smaller scale. There are some examples of private commercial museums, around the world. I am sure most of us would be willing to spare our time and money to get amazed by the wonders of scitech. It is impossible for a country to compete in modern times without progress in scitech, which can occur indigenously only when it has a sufficient number of science and technology passionate people. Our collective or individual efforts for the promotion of science and technology, especially in the young kids, would definitely bear fruits in creating a passion for it from the grass root levels. Formation of Scitech museums and parks is one step towards such a realization.

The author is Chair of Department of Computer Science, Information Technology University, Arfa Software Technology Park, Lahore, Pakistan. He can be reached at <adnan.noor@itu.edu.pk>

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