Tunis Science City is an institution charged with disseminating Science to the lay-public and particularly to the young. Its objective is to open up science to everyone regardless of their educational background. The Tunis Science City is charged with: Stirring the citizens' intellectual curiosity, responding to the citizens' concern and enabling them to understand the technological choices which affect their lives and reinforcing children's interest in science and sparking their curiosity. The visitors, whether youngsters or adults are invited to handle and touch scientific hands-on put at their disposal within the scientific and interactive exhibitions. Thus, they can play while learning in a convivial atmosphere.
1) Indoor Spaces
Through the indoor spaces, Tunis Science City allows visitors to understand natural phenomena in their global character. Those spaces are made up of a Planetarium and pavilions dedicated to the themes of the Universe, Life and Man on Earth, Water, as well as two other pavilions:
a) The Planetarium: It offers the visitors the occasion to watch six shows: Discovering the Universe, Destination planets, the Moon, the Comets, the Blind with stars eyes, Destiny of stars.
b) The Universe: It enables the visitors to distinguish between the different objects of the universe identify the solar system, as well as the Earth's position in the solar system. The pavilion also includes a presentation of the geology of the Earth and a panoply of rocks.
c) Explora: It offers a multidisciplinary approach covering all the scientific domains which affect everyday life. It comprises also a mini auditorium and a laboratory. The program of the laboratory includes scientific experiments which cover various themes such as chemistry, biology, animal and plant physiology, geology, physics.
d) Water: This pavilion tackles the theme of water, its composition, its different states and the techniques of its exploitation and use.
e) Life and Man: It is designed to give a global and evolutional vision of life on Earth. It aims to get people discover the life since its origins right up to the amazing present diversity. Furthermore, the pavilion helps the visitor to understand the history of Human beings, its origins and its evolution.
f) Temporary Exhibitions: It aims to establish a dialogue between science and society. In addition to temporary exhibitions, this space encompasses three other middle-sized exhibitions.
g) The Information Access Center: The Centre aims to get the different categories of the population familiar with the Information and Communication Technology ICTs. The Centre includes three areas: a cyber space with free access to internet, a training room and a conference room.
h) The Multimedia Library: It is dedicated to disseminate the scientific and technical knowledge in a simple and attractive manner. It is divided into two sections, one for children and the other section for adults.
i) The Scientific Shop: The scientific shop offers the public all kinds of educational games illustrating many scientific principles. One can find magazines, games, posters, and Cd-roms, that he can take away as a pleasant souvenir from the Tunis Science City.
2) Open Air Spaces
The open air spaces encompass many exhibits illustrating the educational mission of the Tunis Science City and referring to the landmarks in the history and evolution of science:
j) Archimede’s Screw: In the 3rd century B.C, the Greek mathematician Archimedes invented a machine to raise water thanks to an endless screw system. One of the ends of this huge screw dipped into a basin. By activating a lever, the water is brought to the top of the tube and then pours into a reservoir. The screw mechanism is one way of raising water. It consists of a helicoidally ramp with a very gentle gradient.
k) Sundial: The sundial is an instrument which indicates the solar time by the position of the shadow of a pen or a gnomon on a surface where the graduations are drawn. The gnomon is a vertical element which shows the hour by the length or the direction of its shadow. This instrument had been used by Egyptians as the first object to measure the time.
l) Clepsydra: The clepsydra is an ancient water-clock used by the ancient Egyptians, the Amerindians and the Greeks. It consists of a series of elements including two receptacles, a female figure and a male one with mobile arms to indicate the time units. Once filled with water the two receptacles activate the two arms. The male's arm indicates the hours and the female one indicates the minutes.
m) Foucault’s Pendulum: It is located at the reception hall, demonstrates to visitors how the Earth revolves around itself. At our latitude, it achieves a complete rotation within 40 hours.
n) Noria: It highlights the know-how in the field of water mastery and management through ages. This mechanical device propelled by the flow of water, animals or man power was used for raising water from a river so that it can flow to villages and cultivated lands for irrigation.
3) Publications