Science Circus

Best Show of Tour 1!!!! By Pri :)

The first tour of the year held some interesting challenges, but of these, the most rewarding was visiting specific purposes schools.

 

During week two of tour, most schools had National Testing; this gave the science circus the opportunity to extend their shows to "Schools for Specific Purposes". I visited a great little high school, which was for students who were having behavioural difficulties in mainstream schools. These difficulties stem from a number of issues including Attention Deficit disorder (ADD) and depression.

 

When Pahia, another member of Shell Questacon Science Circus (SQSC), and I arrived at the school, we were surprised to see the students without uniforms. Even more astounding was the impromptu bicycle ride that the students and a teacher took through the bush while were setting up. We were told that these sorts of activities are what kept them active and engaged. Normal classroom activities just wouldn't cut it.

 

With this in mind, Pahia and I decided to set up outside. It was a bright sunny day and we wanted to make the students feel as comfortable as possible. We didn't want them to think of us as teachers in the classroom.

 

We performed various activities to only 8 boys, but this will still go down in record as my favourite show of tour. We started off with slime which is always a winner. They boys tried as hard as they could to punch the slime and were genuinely surprised when it felt hard. We followed this with a few music demonstrations.

 

Since the audience was so small, each member was able to have a play with each prop, making it more like a workshop than an actual show. The teachers even had a go. You know you must be doing something right, when a teacher finds something fascinating.

 

Onto a few collision demos using Newton's cradle and to finish of with a blast, Alka Seltzer rockets. Best way to finish a show and one I'm sure the boys will remember for a long time. The teachers thanked us and commented on how "they had never seen those boys sit still for a whole hour"

This made me feel like what I was doing was worthwhile. Too often, I perform a show to an audience of 150 students with very little feedback that what I'm doing is actually benefiting them. This particular show reassured me that SQSC is an amazing program that reaches students in a way no other program can.

 

It was also a welcome change to work so closely with my partner, Pahia. Most shows consist of a pair of us performing our separate shows and busks to make up an hour long show, however in this situation we could constantly bounce ideas off each other and were always involved. Already looking forward to the next tour!

 

- Pri

Matt in the Shell Questacon Science Circus

Hello watchers. 

So in my last blog I was so excited talking about rainbows that I failed to introduce myself: I’m Matt, a member of the Shell Questacon Science Circus 09

This year we are lucky enough to be travelling to the NSW coast (been and gone!), Pilbra, Kimberly, Pitjinjara country and the apple isle (also known as Tasmania). 

When I say we, I refer to 15 other Science Circus presenters, a tour coordinator, a roady and a goat (well I think they should have a goat anyway).  And what might we be doing in these interesting places?… Taking science to the people and making it fun! 

I have come to the circus with a biology background with experience in cancer research.  That aside, this year out on the road I am doing two different shows for the school children, being a renewable energy show and a structures show (both 20 minute shows).  So that is a lightening fast overview of me and my place in the Science Circus.  You will be hearing more about my adventures in the coming months.

Cheerio, Matt

Sights, Sounds, and Smells of Gosford by Matt

Fish jumping out of the ocean, a rainbow and its reflection in the water, as well as the distinct clear and crisp smell of a rain forest. These were all the things that caught my attention this morning on my jog through and around the beautiful town of Gosford. I really enjoyed pondering about the science behind the rainbow. And the jumping fish 'jogged' my memory back to Jill's marine show which I saw last week, and to thinking about all the cool creatures in the sea. It is good to be here.

The Shell Questacon Science Circus in 2009

A new year is well under way for the Shell Questacon Science Circus.

In February a new group of 16 presenters began a Graduate Diploma in Science Communication at the Australian National University and Questacon - The National Science and Technology Centre. They will be the presenters of the Science Circus for 2009.

From February to April they were trained in Science Show Giving, Working on the Science Circus, Science Exhibition Design and Development, Science Journalism, and Evaluation of Communication Projects.

There will be more training later in the year but now it is time to practice what they have been learning. The Circus will do four tours this year:
1. Gosford to Muswellbrook (3 May to 6 June)
2. Indigenous Communities in Pilbara region of WA (1 August to 15 August)
3. Karratha, Port Hedland and Broome (16 August to 26 August)
4. Tasmania (27 September to 24 October)

You can find a more detailed schedule at http://sciencecircus.questacon.edu.au/on_the_road.html

While on tour the Circus does science shows in schools and sets up science exhibitions in public halls.

The 2009 Shell Questacon Science Circus (From Left to Right): Priyanka, Matt, Linden, Scott, Jill, Broderick, Alice, Mitsuru, Ben, Mei, Steph, Jay, Steve, Pahia, Richard, Sally, Claire

You can read their bios at http://sciencecircus.questacon.edu.au/circus_presenters.html 

Touring with the Circus is heaps of fun, always exciting and often thought-provoking. This year the presenters will let you know about their year through posts to this blog. I hope you enjoy it.

Cameron Millsom (Shell Questacon Science Circus Coordinator)

Port Douglas to Cairns

After a day off relaxing with facials, body scrubs, massages and body floats in Port Douglas, the team got back to work in Mossman. By complete coincidence most of the team were in Port Douglas when Steve Irwin died, although we only found out on the news that evening.

Mossman is a small town just south of the Daintree Rainforest. Our accommodation was right in the middle of the rainforest, with animals and bugs galore. The weather was very tropical, with hot and sticky days, but the pool helped. We visited schools in Port Douglas and Mossman on Tuesday and Wednesday, while Daniel and I were lucky enough to visit a school in Cape Tribulation, which is in the Daintree.

Wednesday saw our Public Exhibition roll around, with lots of people visiting considering the population of the region. Setting and packing up the exhibition was hot and sweaty work, but a late night ice cream trip took our minds off it.

On Thursday we drove to Cairns. Civilization! Traffic lights, backpackers, more shopping malls than you can poke a stick at, and some very large schools. Cairns as a city stretches far in the South and West, with the beach area taken over by tourists. All our teams have been busy, with 120 kids on average seeing each show, meaning presenters see in excess of 500 kids in a day. Remembering names has been a struggle!

Our accommodation is excellent in Cairns, with Balinese apartments right on the beach. The team have been showing off their culinary skills, with some five star meals coming out of most apartments.

We have also been busy with two competitions our media team is running. We have a colouring competition, and a water tower building challenge, where students are asked to use 20 straws and 2 metres of masking tape, and construct a tower that can hold a cup of water. We set up a tower next to Cairns lagoon as a media stunt, but instead of using 16 cm straws we used 1.6 m cardboard rolls. We managed to build a tower 3.5 m high, that held five people and up to 400 kg.

This week is our last week of tour, and is all in Cairns. Today Tim, Christina, Mike, Ben, our coordinator Bettina, and our truck driver Brad headed out to an Aboriginal community called Yarrabah, along with our truck. After a white knuckle drive along an incredibly steep and windy drive we set up at the school, unpacking our truck and presenting shows. The community is situated between the base of a mountain range and the beach. Both the location and students were beautiful, with all the presenters having a great time.

We only have three more days of school shows, followed by a Friday and Saturday exhibition. We will be back in Canberra on Sunday, but stay tuned for more blog entries from our next destination, Tasmania, in five weeks time.

Tim O'Mahony

Week Two with Team Queensland

Saturday saw us leave in convoy for Normanton; a 700+ km drive. With walky talkies and plenty of stops we made it in safely. Half of us spent Sunday fishing, where we caught ten salmon, four sharks, and a catfish. Lunch and dinner were easily catered for that weekend!

Normanton is a predominantly Indigenous community, and we spent the Monday running workshops, presenting shows and also hosting our Public Exhibtion. Although the town has only 1500 people we still managed to fill our space, and the kids seem to have a great time.

Tuesday was a driving day, with half the crew travelling straight through to Atherton up in the tablelands, and the other half presenting shows along the way, and staying the night in Mount Surprise.

Atherton has been our largest town so far, with over 11 000 people. Atherton also saw the return of Fenja, who was sick for the first week and a half. Most teams have been flat chat, presenting shows all day to schools in Atherton and the surrounding region. The weather is cooler at night, but still nice and tropical during the day.

We have a public exhibtion tomorrow in Atherton, then two days off where we plan to visit the Daintree. Keep checking this blog, as we will be posting again soon.

Tim O'Mahony

Team Queensland heads off for some sunshine

Now it's the turn of the other half of the Circus (Team Queensland) to hit the road. While Team Vic is busy doing work placements and shivering in still chilly Canberra they're off for four weeks in the tropics. Ha! And they say touring is hard work. Here a record of their exploits so far...

Zannah Lyons

The circus headed off to warm and sunny Far North Queensland, flying into Townsville on Sunday. We then picked up our cars and moved to Ingham, were we promptly had a pinata session and got back into the swing of doing shows.

Ingham is a major sugar cane town, with the smell of molasses rich in the air (yum). After three days and a successful exhibition we headed off to cyclone damaged Innisfail.

Innisfail has managed to regrow most of it's banana stock, and a lot of work has been done to repair infrastructure. The schools we visited were appreciative of us making an effort to visit their region, and we got a great response from the kids. We also ran a presentation at the local Rotary club, where we talked about why people need to communicate science. We met some very influential people, and they all seemed convinced that what we do is worthwhile.

Tim O'Mahony

Circus celebrates 21st birthday in style!

It was a gala event in the Great Hall of Parliament House that marked the 21^st birthday of the Shell Questacon Science Circus yesterday.

Distinguished guests, past and present scholars, and school children from Evatt and St Thomas More’s primary schools were on hand to celebrate what is one of the world’s most successful science outreach programmes.

For this year’s team not only was it a great opportunity for us to talk to previous scholars about their experiences after the Circus, we also had a chance to take sweet revenge on the truck, even though we were only eating a smaller cake replica!

The Shell Questacon Science Circus has visited well over 1 million people in its 21 year history due in no small part to our three major sponsors Shell in Australia, The Australian National University and Questacon.

The Circus even received a very special present, with Shell and ANU announcing that they will be continuing to support Questacon in touring the Science Circus until at least the end of 2009!

As I’m sure all my colleagues would join with me in saying we have an incredible time taking the Circus around the country and feel very privileged to be part of this programme, so here’s to the next fantastic 21 years!

Week Four with Team Vic

As the end of tour approached we were lucky enough to have two visitors with us this week. Mez, normally our coursework coordinator in Canberra, and Christine from CSIRO Melbourne both joined the team to help us out with school shows.

Bright

Our fourth week touring around Victoria started with a case of déjà vu as we drove towards what we hoped were snowy slopes surrounding the town of Bright in Victoria’s Alpine Region.

As well as visiting schools in the area we were also lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit the local kindergarten and an aged care hostel, as well as driving to the top of Mount Hotham where it actually started snowing while we were up there.

Our public exhibition entertained more than 600 visitors and marked the return of our Local Explainer Jayne who had so enjoyed helping us out in Wangaratta that she returned to help us again in Bright!

Cobram

The last town we visited this tour was Cobram, on the banks of the mighty Murray River, where Matt and Justine were lucky enough to perform at the local special school. Once again we were warmly welcomed by the town with over 600 locals turning up to our public exhibition that Friday night.

So for now it’s goodbye to Victoria as we drive back to Canberra to find out what the rest of our team has been up to during their four weeks of placement.

Zannah Lyons

From (sort of) snowy slopes to big country crowds

As we're past the halfway point of Tour Victoria it's now my turn to take the blog-writing mantle away from Matthew and keep you updated on how we're all going!

Mansfield

With the whole team enjoying a rare day off on Monday it was time to either take a trip up to Mount Buller or enjoy a well-deserved sleep in. While it's still quite early in the season for there to be lots of snow we had a great time running around on the slopes anyway, particularly those of us used to the much warmer climes  of Queensland and Western Australia!

On our second full day in Mansfield we visited many of the local schools and our hard work was well rewarded with a turn out of over 700 interested locals at our exhibition that night, half of those students we had visited earlier that day.

This may be the first time the circus has visited Mansfield but after our very warm reception we certainly hope it won't be the last!

Wangaratta

Wednesday meant it was time to pack up once again and travel to Wangaratta, our last major centre on this tour. We were lucky enough to have a visit from Graham Smith while we were in Wang to see how we were all going, and also to make a much appreciated dessert contribution to our fabulous team dinners!

It was also great to be able to perform in front of cousins in Wangaratta as Matthew and I both have family who live nearby.

So last Saturday our three days of visiting schools in the area culminated in our most successful exhibition all tour with over 1200 people coming to see us in the four hours we were set up in Wang. After such a busy day it was fantastic to relax that night at Matthew's uncle farm for a barbeque.

Only two more towns to go so stay tuned for more science circus news soon!

Zannah