Scientist for a Day inspires young scientists

Scientist for a Day saw dozens of budding young scientists visit the Australian Museum for Marine Worlds and Urban Explorer.  

As the Museum doors opened on Thursday the 14th and Friday the 15th of January, an excited group of budding young marine scientists joined us for ‘Scientist for a Day – Marine Worlds’. Together we learnt about what marine scientists do and then our visitors got to try out being a marine biologist with a rather smelly squid dissection! Using some very cool technology, our new marine detectives investigated a variety of the secret weapons that marine animals use and experienced being taxonomists by identifying some Balmain bug species! We also got to see some very special parts of the marine collection in a behind-the-scenes tour.
 

With the sun shining down on Monday the 18th, we welcomed some young entomology enthusiasts for ‘Scientist for a Day – Urban Explorer’. We investigated the spider community of Hyde Park, by finding and identifying webs. Sorting through leaf litter to find and categorise the insects we found helped our young scientists realise that there are many types of life living under our feet, we just need to notice them! For those interested in the tiny spider that was found, our arachnologist identified it as a mature female Ostearius melanopygius. We saw some amazing pinned insects on a behind-the-scenes tour and also got to hold and draw some live stick insects.

If you were a participant in Scientist for a Day, please comment on this story and share what you learnt!
 

The Australian Museum runs Scientist for a Day programs for 8-12 year olds during selected school holidays, so stay tuned for details of the next adventure.


Ellen McCormack , Operations Coordinator
Last Updated:

4 comments

Erinna - 7.02 PM, 11 February 2010
Hi John! Wow, that is really exciting! I am so happy that one of them has come out, do you know if it is a male or a female? Don't be too worried about it being under the soil, they will often bury themselves to escape danger. They do love banana, but I believe they will eat other soft fruit as well, if you want to change it around a bit sometimes to give some variety you can. Also, they will happily eat rotting fruit, so you don't have to worry about giving him (or her) new banana every day. It was lovely to meet you and your beetle larvae, please keep us updated! I'm glad you enjoyed Scientist for a Day - I did as well! I'll hopefully see you studying entomology at university in a few years :) Kind Regards, Erinn Fagan-Jeffries
Johnw - 4.02 PM, 11 February 2010
When I changed the banana over before school, I had to pick up the beetle to put it on the new banana. However, when I placed him on the new banana he got scared and went underground and he still hasnt come out again. I think the course was very fun. The museum people were very friendly. In the Botanical Gardens we saw 30 or 40 webs and 7 or 8 spiders. We did heaps of stuff on bugs and how to find them and we even had a backstage tour. I really hope I can do the course again. John
Sophie Lieberman - 1.02 PM, 11 February 2010

THIS IS A MESSAGE FROM ONE OF THE PARTICIPANTS IN SCIENTIST FOR A DAY - VIA -EMAIL

Hi Erinn,
Its me John. I was at the Scientist for a Day and I showed you my Rhino Beetle pupa. Thank you for taking me up to Search and Discover.   I want to tell you that one of the pupa came out this morning and I am so excited. It has been eating banana  and I gave it some new eucalyptus leaves. Mum said she would buy it some sugar cane.
Does it need anything else? If you have a suggestion, please let me know.
I hope your studies are going well!

Erinna - 12.02 PM, 02 February 2010
Mr Blobby, a fish specimen that we saw on the behind-the-scenes tour in Marine Worlds, was in the Adelaide newspaper on Sunday! http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/A-Fathead-genus-Psychrolutes/

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