Science is child’s play at Questacon

Hello!

It’s Wednesday again and I’m sharing a great adventure we had in Canberra recently. It was amazing fun sharing hands-on science experiments with my daughter and two of my grandchildren.

Taking little ones to Questacon

When I say ‘little ones’ I mean a one year old and a three year old.

Not really old enough to engage with science yet, you might question. But think again. Questacon is a fabulous place to explore science and learn through play, even oldies like me can learn new things!

What is Questacon?

Questacon – the National Science and Technology Centre is an interactive science communication facility in Canberra, Australia. It is a museum with more than 200 interactive exhibits relating to science and technology. It has many science programs that are intended to inspire the children of Australia to love science. Source

It was officially opened in November 1988. I remember taking our three girls there for workshops and fun in the school holidays when they were at primary school. Canberra is a 3 hour drive away for us, so we were obviously keen to help them enjoy learning about science! It’s even better these days than it was back then.

That all might sound a bit dry and boring but I can assure you it was action packed, exciting few hours, full of amazing stuff to play with.

There are several ‘galleries’ available to visit and we only did a few, but we’ll definitely visit again!

Excite@Q

We loved the Excite@Q gallery which was full of high energy and high impact activities like the Thermal Camera which captured us dancing using our body heat. Here’s a photo of the Mathematician dancing – a rare event at any time!

We also played air hockey with a robot – it was very good! We all loved the Whoosh activity, watching and waiting to catch the colourful scarves as they were whooshed through the air tubes to flutter down on us.

I enjoyed the Rototron – a tunnel of LED lights that picked up on movement. If you look closely in this photo you can see me taking the photo.

Mini Q

Mini Q is aimed at the 0-6 year olds and was full of budding little scientists on the day we were there. Water play, balls flying in the air, a construction zone complete with hard hats, a play vet clinic, a pretend shop, and so much more. The little ones loved it!

Fun for 0-6 year olds is a custom-built environment for little scientists. Each zone in Mini Q encourages carers and their young children to explore their environment through a process of observation, prediction, testing and refining. These processes are used by little (and big) scientists to learn about the world around them, inspire imagination, and develop confidence. Source

Awesome Earth

In this gallery we experienced an earthquake in the earthquake lab, played with the plasma ball, listened to the sounds of the sea and had trouble dragging the kids away from the gravity well! It was all so exciting.

Children and Science

I would not have thought there would be so much to entertain little ones aged 1 and 3 but it was hard to drag them away from it all in the end, we were all enjoying ourselves so much.

I like this from Questacon’s website

Children are naturally curious and inquisitive and Questacon values the importance of young children playing and exploring scientifically. Our early childhood learning programs provide meaningful opportunities for young children and their carers to have fun engaging with science whilst building their scientific thinking and understanding, and developing positive attitudes towards science learning. Source

Everywhere we went there were (masked) attendants ready to help, explain, and show us how to use the equipment and nothing was too much trouble., everything was hands-on and was being wiped down as soon we left each station.

The cost isn’t prohibitive – under 4 years of age are free, adults cost $24.50 and those on a concession card cost $18.90. We had to book online which was easy to do and could have stayed much longer but our one year old needed a sleep!

More information on Questacon and all they offer can be found here – Questacon

Wednesdays are for sharing some amazing moments – this visit was mine for the week. #wakeupandbeamazingwednesday

Have an amazing day – don’t forget, you’re amazing!

Deb 🙂

All my Wordless Wednesday posts can be found by clicking this link

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• Our monthly linkup What’s on Your Bookshelf (WOYBS) is coming up Friday 20 May. It’s where we share what we’ve been reading, watching or simply enjoying. Hope to see you!

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