Taking your children to the Universal Exposition is a unique opportunity. Forests, Ferris wheels, a theme park and plenty of shows — with the hope of making it an educational experience too.
All it took was a walk around during the first month of Expo 2015. Dozens and dozens of school groups were wandering through the pavilions, amazed and curious. This was especially true for the youngest visitors: seeing an entire class with mouths agape as the representatives of one pavilion or another filed past, or laughing during the mascot parade, says it all about the impact. And between lightness and fun, there is certainly room for the more educational messages to get through.
Here, then, is what to visit with your children at Expo 2015.
Everyone has talked about it, and on the busiest days it is one of the pavilions with the longest waiting times. But once you get inside it is worth it. The enormous suspended net, which is no easy feat to cross, is a source of play and, why not, exercise. On the lower floor, the garden featuring all the traditional species is interspersed with large touch screens offering interactive games to turn visitors into virtual farmers. Sporty and high-tech.
Particularly well-suited to hot days, this pavilion takes visitors inside a real Austrian forest, complete with fir trees, undergrowth and streams, capable of producing oxygen for 1,800 people per hour. At many points there are interactive viewers to discover the fauna, flora and main mechanisms that govern the ecosystem: simply point the binoculars and an animation explains, for example, plant respiration, the particular species, or the biome in question. Perfect for budding naturalists.
Extremely simple, yet very well-crafted and technology-driven. Along one of the external walls are the traditional Estonian swings, which are well worth trying: apparently there was one in every village, positioned on a rise on the border between fields and woods. On the second floor you enter a reproduction of the typical forest: here you can take a break in a cool climate (thanks to the pavilion's natural ventilation) or observe and smell essences. Visiting this pavilion, you get a sense of a young, growing country, committed to innovation and the conservation of the natural environment.
A very simple installation. It resembles a small funfair, devoted to music and street food. Well worth trying is the small Ferris wheel you can ride while sampling a few typical Dutch dishes.
This is the structure dedicated to the youngest visitors, which is precisely why it is not to be missed. Here, thanks to 7 themed installations, children learn through play: musical bikes and sensory challenges, with themes covering water, the micro and macro cosmos, and relationships. Built entirely from certified timber by South Tyrolean company Rubner, it is curated by Sabina Cantarelli and developed by the team at Reggio Children – Centro Internazionale per la difesa e la promozione dei diritti e delle potenzialità dei bambini e delle bambine. To date it has welcomed 40,000 children.
A whole range of services dedicated to the youngest visitors is also available: at the West Chicco entrance, a point has been set up where you can collect pushchairs for little ones. The toilets are also equipped with changing tables and areas dedicated to mothers. Various water stations offering fresh, free water are positioned throughout the pavilions. To move from one part of the exhibition site to another, it is advisable to use the free shuttle buses that travel clockwise around the outer perimeter of the entire exhibition area.