Cue the “Mission Impossible” theme!
Your mission, should you choose to accept it…is to take on the role of a double-agent in the Orlando Science Center’s exhibit called “Top Secret: License to Spy.”
Visitors use real spy gadgets like phone taps, code breakers, and a listening device that uses lasers to gather clues and crack the case in a fictional high-tech heist.
The science center’s Jeff Stanford said underneath all the cool gadgets and the cloak-and-dagger vibe are real lessons in STEM and the scientific method…but that it’s so much fun neither you nor the kids may notice that it’s educational.
“It's got this great retro vibe,” said Stanford. “It feels like you were on the set of ‘Mission Impossible’ or some of the Sean Connery James Bond movies. It wraps lessons in STEM around this backdrop of espionage, and basically it uses the spy world as the setting to talk about things like critical thinking and problem solving and communication and teamwork, you know, all those important STEM skills.”
“What a spy does to crack the case, to make observations, to analyze data, to solve problems - these are the same things that a scientist does,” explained Stanford. “It draws the relationship between spy technology and the real science that runs through it.”
The first room of the sprawling exhibit features monitors fed by hidden cameras to hunt down, and other stations offer opportunities to crack codes, eavesdrop using laser microphone tech, examine a bugging device, get clues inside a “cone of silence,” and attempt a daring escape through a crisscrossing laser grid.
“And there's a throughline through this exhibit that is all about trying to solve a mystery and identify who stole the ‘Quantum Computer.’ You're picking up clues at every station and you're learning things along the way,” said Stanford.
And there is a right answer, noted Stanford. A character in this story did, in fact, steal the “Quantum Computer.” A “debrief room” at the end of the exhibit reveals the identity of the thief and allows visitors to check their answers.
Stanford stressed that this exhibit is for all ages. “You do not need to be accompanied by a child to enjoy this exhibit,” he laughed.
“Top Secret: License to Spy” will disappear into the shadows after this weekend.
