Elisabeth Champion
Children are invited to experience the wonder of science at the Mount Gambier Science Fair.
Featuring a huge range of activities from virtual reality to a wildlife display featuring venomous and non venomous snakes, an invertebrate display, microscopes and slime, there’s also paper rockets, pinwheel making and Questacon.
There will also be shows from Professor Magic and Sci-Fi Bri.
Director of the Science Collective Brian Haddy said the purpose of the event was to embrace children’s love for science and the world around them.
“It’s not about exciting kids about science, it’s about affirming their interest in the world around them,” he said.
“So young kids into snakes, the environment and rockets, so what we’re saying is, that’s good. And that’s cool.
“Science, unfortunately, is known for being that that hard subject over there, whereas a scientific way of thinking is just helping understand how the world works. Why is it so? How does that work? What does it do then? Why? Why is the sky blue?
“It’s just about asking questions and learning, it’s not just physics, chemistry, biology.”
Mr Haddy said there was more benefits to loving science than just fun and knowledge,.
He said people who are more knowledgeable of science are more likely to be able to determine fact from fiction online and in the news.
“Our view is that the more people that are science literate, the less fake news, etc.
“You don’t teach kids art to become Picasso, you teach kids because it’s a good thing for them to have knowledge and understanding and for them to enjoy life.
“In that same way, whether or not you end up studying in career in science, the more people that can ask questions and debate the world around us, climate change, etc, the better.
“What we’re trying to do is a bit of an antidote against fake news and conspiracy theories by simply encouraging people to ask more questions and don’t take the first answer.”
As well as the science fair, the Science Collective will be doing their best to attract more women to join science, holding a women’s forum at Grant High School.
Female engineers, ecologists and other scientists will present to the girls to encourage those with a keen interest in science to consider career pathways.
“I’m lining up five female scientists to talk to Year 10 and 11 girls at Grant High School to encourage more girls to more seriously consider science and engineering studies, and create pathways, because most of them don’t know what the pathway is and don’t know what the job looks like.
“About 17 per cent of STEM professionals are women. That’s horrendous. And yet they do better maths and science at high school.
“We’ve got all these boys going into engineering and so on and the girls go the other direction. So I think partly that’s a cultural thing and we need to help the girls get over that.”
The Science Fair is family friendly, but tickets must be pre-purchased at thesciencecollective.com/mt-gambier-science-fair
