Science in ACTion at the Old Bus Depot Markets
“Always Look at the Bright Side of Plants”
We interacted with hundreds of people, especially high school students, and young children and their parents. We showed kids how to extract DNA from strawberries while introducing them (and their parents) to the idea of genes (“the instructions inside a cell that tell a strawberry how to be a strawberry”). Some of the younger kids were just excited to mash up the strawberries, but all the parents were pleased to take photos of them with their genomic extraction. We even spoke to a number of teachers and enthusiastic parents who were keen to replicate this activity as it used household or readily accessible items (washing detergent, saltwater, ethanol and fruit!).
We also ran activities explaining how leaves absorbed photos of certain colours for photosynthesis using velcro-covered balls (the red and blue ones stuck on a huge felt leaf, the green ones didn’t).
“There is something really special about, I think, about science community days. I remember the science markets I went to as a very young child –the atmosphere saturated with the smell of cotton candy, the spell of liquid nitrogen ice cream –this one, giant, bouncing castle designed to replicate a plant cell –forget about education! It’s magic. I found it cathartic to have a chance to revisit and revise my experience –this time, in a facilitating role as a volunteer. My favourite moments over the weekend were ones fixed by that unique expression between wonder and bewilderment –that’s how I know people really enjoyed themselves.” (Victor)
“People came from a range of backgrounds, from a guy who’d worked in IT for years (but had a keen interest in genetics) to a second year medical science student. We had to gauge how much science people knew and tailor our explanation to that. We’d come up with a spiel before the event but throughout the night gradually refined it, such as the order in which we presented the activities, the bits of the explanation to leave out and the jargon and analogies that we used. Everyone enjoyed seeing the fluorescent DNA and proteins and were quite impressed by the logic of how we could use our split protein system to cut DNA! People asked us questions like how could our system be applied to treat disease and what would happen if recombinant DNA technology turned humans into zombies… It was a great atmosphere and a lot of fun, but very exhausting!” (Janelle)
“Amazing! I learnt something that I had never thought possible 11/10” (Quote from Questacon visitor)