Friday, June 24, 2005

Science Centre Attachment

Over the past few days, i have been an honoured employee of the Singapore Science Centre. Rash managed to find a job slot there to squeeze me in, and they began calling me for secondary attachments later on.

That's Science In The Mall 2005, an annual workshop and exhibition for kids down at a particular shopping centre. This year, we're having it at Junction 8, and the theme's "Xploring Earth". Basically, we're talking about stuffs like Tsunamis, Volcanos, Typhoons etc. Kinda boring stuff actually... but with the installation of the regular Science Shows and activity workshops, its really kinda cool. There's a live mini volcano on display that spits red goo, a vortex generator and an Earthquake machine.

Im in charge of one of the science workshops, likely the most boring one Id say. My station's called the Earth Model. Basically, my partner and me are suppose to teach kids how to fold a green and blue cardboard template into an icosahedral Earth model. I dun really enjoy the process, it really is kinda boring. What i truely enjoy, however, is the interaction with the kiddies! Haha, they are soooooo adorable. We're talking about kids ranging from 3 years to 10 years old. Many youngies have droopy cheeks, and i so feel like pinching them siah ... xcept that their parents are behind watching. Some are simply too young to even know what we're talking about, and some are overzealous and out of control ... running around and stuffs. My partner's from NTU, and her name's Engel. One of my friends who saw us says he envies me for pairing up with a cute girl. Haha... I'll agree! The conversation with the kids are really fun as well, a little girl told me her experiences in Disney Land Japan, and chatting with twins is really quite a joy. Some kiddies called me Uncle, not that I mind. The same kiddies called Engel Auntie, and I think she minds.















-Engel and Me

Liang Ming is in charge of a cool station. He creates twisters in a bottle! As kids, we often twist our mineral water bottles hard to create a vortex sort of tornado. However, just by adding some simple ingredients to water, namely vinegar and soap, the same twister can be observed just with a simple flick. The extra ingredients increase the viscousity of water, and thereby making the twisters more lasting and obvious... do try it if you're free... its pretty cool.

Waimun makes a Wind Gauge kind of thingie, and some other malay collegues take a station called the Shifting Continents.

A fun thing to do will be to express our artistic capabilities in designing the twister bottles with permanent markets. Somehow the guys are really addicted to this. Waimun showed everyone his Picasso side, and i made quite a few 爱心龙卷风. Im only left with 1 of them twisters though, the rest are given to some kiddies. At least they appreciate my art.















- my hair sux.

My attachment went on for three day, and it was definately an enjoyable experience. I even forgot Im getting paid for this. I'll definately sign up for the next Science In The Mall exhibition next year, and perhaps the recent one this September.

But ....... my employee status aint over, unlike others!
Read up the next post!

sk