Chemistry Outreach In Malaysia Part 2: Parents

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Marina Roxburgh

Back home in Dunedin, Chemistry Outreach team member Geoff Weal hosts a drop in science session called “Science for supper” for kids and their parents. The idea behind science for supper is for parents to share and understand the excitement that their kids get from science, so that they might better understand it and follow it up in the home. This year the team has their first opportunity to work with the parents of some of the local students, so they’re bringing science for supper to Malaysia.

In the covered central walkway of the Sarawak IPG, the outreach team sets up nine stalls- each showcasing a different experiment: The chemists man a cauldron of fire, create pH indicators from red cabbage, coach sodium acetate into stalagmites, generate vast quantities of PVA borax slime, and create artwork from cyanotypes and chromatography. The physicists create LED torches from scratch, use polarised lenses to explain how light behaves, and hold a modest disco in a darkened room. The day has an air of the carnival about it, and Geoffrey Weal walks tall between stalls, beaming like a ringleader.

The bog standard science-for-supper session is for both kids and parents, so there was some concern that the parent attendees wouldn’t be as enthusiastic without their children to stoke the enthusiasm. We needn’t have worried. Shrieks of laughter echo up and down the bustling atrium, and the figures leaving each crowded stall are eager to see what’s happening at the next.

The Chemistry Outreach team poses for a photo at the Sarawak IPG before their Science For Supper session

You can see Dave Warren and Geoff Weal talk about their experience, and give some background about science for supper at the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoGstSY5Dn8

This blog will be updated periodically as the trip progresses, but you can also keep up with the team on facebook, twitter, youtube, and Instagram at the following URLs

Otago chemistry outreach page: https://www.facebook.com/chemotago/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvEnYDv1AdrA016_E86Fj0w

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