Joel and Jenny’s Outback

Science Tour

Children at the Bamaga Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community (with Joel)

We hope that these slides will give you some insight into our outback science tour funded by the ATSE this year.

Many thanks for your continued support!

Jenny Riesz and Joel Gilmore

• We were offered a seed grant from the Australian Institute of Physics (AIP)

• The ATSE contributed additional funding

• The University of Queensland (UQ) provided equipment and administration support

Children at the Bamaga Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community (with

Joel)

• To celebrate the World Year of Physics, we decided to promote science to children in remote areas of Queensland

Torres Strait Islands

Oct 2005

• Spent 10 days visiting schools on 6 different islands

These are the islands we visited over the week.

• The islands are very remote and isolated

• We had to fly in tiny aircraft to get between them!

• The first stop was Yorke Island• 2.7km long, and 800m at its widest point

The whole school!

Although tiny, Yorke is an average sized island!

Yorke Island• As at most schools, we

performed a Science Show in the morning

• We then did hands on workshops in the afternoon, with the older students

Yr 6 students discover how energy can be stored and converted into different forms

The 4 Ball Bounce: an impressive demonstration of conservation of energy

• After Yorke, we visited Horn Island

Yrs 1-4 at Horn Island State School

We ran into one of these students later in the week, and discovered that she had constructed several of our demonstrations herself, and had the ambition of becoming a scientist!

The students played with cartesian divers that float or sink according to the applied pressure

Moa Island• Moa Island has two communities: Kubin and St. Pauls• We visited the schools at both• Kubin State School is 100m from a beautiful beach:

But beware of the ever-present crocodiles!

Show at Kubin SS Students being ‘hit’ by the Airzooka – a giant vortex of air

St. PaulsThat afternoon we drove across the island to St Pauls Community for more shows and workshops

All the students at St Pauls

• We flew to Badu in the afternoon, where we were treated to fresh coconut and wine on the beach

Badu Island• Badu is a larger community that has a reputation for innovation

and leadership– There was a lovely feeling amongst the students and teachers here

Yr 6/7 girls at Badu State

School

They did hands-on

activities about air pressure and vortices

Thursday Island • Thursday Island hosts the largest community in the Torres Strait

• We performed a series of shows for yrs1-7

The Singing Rod demonstrates the nature of sound waves

The Wind bags demonstrate

Bernoulli’s Principle

• We then caught the ferry south to Bamaga

• This is a small community on the mainland– Part aboriginal, part islander

Bamaga

Bamaga is very dry, with the distinctive Australian red dirt. It

stains everything!

• We spent two days running hands-on workshops with yrs 6 – 10

The students investigated the nature of sound waves using tuning forks

A teacher at Thursday Island sent us this e-mail:

I just wanted to say a HUGE THANKYOU to Joel and Jenny.  I thoroughly enjoyed both their science sessions at the stadium on Thursday Island.  It is such a novelty to have visitors who aren't associated with sport.  It is the sort of program that is of fantastic benefit to these students. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!

And this from the Principal at St Pauls:

Jenny and Joel were excellent ambassadors for your university and the discipline of science.  On behalf of all the schools who they visited a BIG THANKYOU, for the knowledge, encouragement, professionalism, and enthusiasm which Jenny and Joel exhibited throughout their time in the Torres Strait.  Our children are much richer for the experience which under normal circumstances they would not have had.

We’d like to pass on their thanks to everyone who contributed to making the trip possible!

HUGE THANK-YOUS:

• Our sponsors:– AIP– ATSE– UQ

• Susan Grantham– For organising everything!

• And for their continued support of Science Outreach:– Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop

(UQ)– Else Shepherd (ATSE)– Andrew White (UQ)– Gary Tuck (UQ)