Adventure crawling into science

Following their story-telling fun from Book Week, the Pre-Prep have this week dedicated a day to science with a trip to the senior school science labs and a visit from 'Bug Man' Lee Gibbs.

Travelling to schools around the country, The Big Bug Show offers a unique hands-on experience of discovering science. Introduced to 4 types of bugs; cockroaches, millipedes, snails and spiders the children learnt about the environments the creatures lived in and what made them different from each other.

Enjoyment sparked from the start seeing the cockroaches right themselves when turned upside-down and watching millipedes uncurl as they warmed up. Sue and Duchio, the snails, were a bit quieter choosing to spend their time curled in their shells due to the dry heat but without a doubt the hits of the show were Barbie and Hayley the South African Tarantulas.

Although the children had been able to hold the snails, cockroaches and millipedes, the harmless but daunting Barbie was held by the teachers and introduced to the children who all had the chance to stroke her and get up close to see each of her 8 legs in action.

The session was drawn to an exciting close with a cockroach race and impressive display by brave teacher Mrs Thind who dared to eat a pre-cooked cricket!

With the visit to the senior school the children were able to conduct some science experiments, making worms from calcium chloride and red and blue alginate, watching crystal gardens rapidly growing in beakers and making bouncy custard balls from borax, custard powder and glue.

Along with the fun stuff, the children learnt the serious side of science, understanding how important safety clothing, goggles and gloves are when using chemicals and equipment in the labs. All the children were exceptionally well behaved and listened and followed all their instructions very carefully. Well done Pre-Prep and well done Mrs Thind!!!