The last time I engaged in a science outreach activity for kids was five years ago while I was an undergraduate at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. As part of the ‘Fundamentals of Environmental Management’ course, we carried out a workshop on rainwater harvesting to primary students in selected schools. (Fun fact: It was this experience that helped me realize I wanted to pursue a career in environmental science!)
Last weekend I participated in my first science outreach event in Australia. Four of us (representing UNSW Science and SWAQ) demonstrated simple science experiments to children at ‘Science in the Swamp’. This was organized as part of the Sydney Science Festival 2019 which was part of the National Science Week. This is Australia’s annual celebration of science and technology where many individuals get involved, taking part in over 1000 science events across the nation. In addition to celebrating the contributions made by Australian scientists to the world of knowledge, it also encourages an interest in science pursuits among the general public. On Sunday morning we headed to Centennial Park and set up our stall. Although the event was scheduled for an 11 am start, we had our first visitors at 10 am, just as we finished setting up. Thus, began the demonstrations. The children were quite small, but they knew what a tornado was and so they were excited to see one inside a bottle! They all wanted to give it a go and some of them were reluctant to let go of the bottles (until their parents reminded them to let the others have a turn). I was pleased to hear some kids go “Daddy can we try this at home?”. If you want to try this at home (or better yet show it to some kids), here's a breakdown of what's going on. There's water in one bottle and air in the other. When you invert the system it will take some time for the water to empty, but this can be sped up by giving it a swirl. When the bottles are inverted, water and air try to move through the same passage at the same time. However, if you give it a good swirl, a vortex (spinning column of air) is formed. The air will move through this column while the water moves around this, with minimal friction with one another. The water is pulled toward the air column by centripetal force and it moves downward due to gravity. As a result, you will see that the water moves faster when you give it a swirl. When I signed up for Science in the Swamp, my main concern was ‘communicating science’ to a very young audience as a non-native speaker. I thought there may be issues with a mismatch in accents, but it turned out that the bigger challenge was in simplifying science. I learnt that the most effective explanations were the ones that used the simplest language and those that were conveyed with a sense of excitement. My experience at Science in the Swamp was enriched by the sheer enthusiasm of the kids who came to our stall. Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and leave. It was a well-spent Sunday and the weather was splendid to be outdoors! I couldn’t help but wish we had done similar experiments when we were in school. It’s never too early to get children excited about science and in my case, it’s never too late to get more involved in outreach programmes 😊
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AuthorBudding climate scientist from Sri Lanka, currently pursuing a PhD on heatwaves, at the Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC) at UNSW, Sydney. Believes in using effective science communication to bridge the gap between science and society :) Archives
June 2021
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