On Thursday, students across all years at Burke Ward Public School were treated to a collection of science shows and experiments delivered by SciFiBri and Professor Flint as a fore taste to the Broken Hill Science Fair in late May.
From a Froth and Bubbles chemistry show to a Smoke and Fire show, along with activities that saw schoolchildren making pinwheels and rockets, constructing marshmallow spaghetti towers, and learning about electric circuits, the day was all about introducing kids to a range of things they might not otherwise have come across.
“The whole idea of these days is to spark children’s curiosity and in fact, affirm the curiosity that most kids have within them because that’s what being a scientist is about,” Director of The Science Collective, Brian Haddy, told the Barrier Truth.
“It’s about asking why and how, and not giving up when the person next to you doesn’t know the answer. You ask another person, or you do some research. Both Professor Flint and I have been encouraging the kids to just keep learning, keep asking, keep being curious.
“It seems like the kids had a good time. We just hope that the mixture of activities we’ve had today makes them a bit more curious. We hope that giving them some facts leads them to say, ‘but what about this, what about that?’.”
The Science Collective returns in a couple of months for Broken Hill Science Fair which will be held at Broken Hill Racecourse on Saturday, May 25 and Sunday, May 26. Last year saw a bumper crowd for the first event, with Mr Haddy promising this year’s Science Fair will be even bigger.
“What we gave the kids today is a taste of what will be on show at the second Broken Hill Science Fair, he said.
“It’s wonderful to come to Broken Hill, we love Broken Hill, and we’d like to do more work here. If any schools would like us to come back, we’d love to.”
