Little scientists

By Miss Melinda Hamilton, Kindergarten Teacher

In the first week back to school our Kindergarten students enjoyed a ‘Little Scientists’ incursion with Dr Graham Walker from the Australian National University as part of their new unit of inquiry, How the World Works. Dr Walker is a science communication teacher, researcher and practitioner based at the National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science (CPAS) at ANU.

Lots of gasps, giggles and squeals of delight were heard as Dr Walker demonstrated scientific experiments using household items such as ballons, a leaf blower, a vacuum cleaner and a rubbish bin. The students were hanging on his every word.

They learned that when you do an experiment you only change one thing at a time to find out what effect it has. Their main take-away from the session was that scientists are curious and ask lots of questions. It was truly an eye-opening experience for our young students.

It was so much fun. I learnt that scientists can make cool inventions – Archer

I got to cut the straw when Graham was blowing it. I had to not cut his nose – Johan

Graham used his big drum of air to knock a cup off my head. Scientists do lots of experiments to learn new stuff – Caitlin

It was so funny when Graham had the blower making the big balls go above us. The blow was very strong – Annabelle