Big Kids’ Night Out
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Big Kids’ Night Out

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As the name suggests, it’s a chance for the Big Kids to have some fun at Scienceworks without all the little kids that are usually there. It’s an opportunity, says Science Program Manager Frances Haire, for adults to get to either relive their childhood visits or experience it for the first time.

 

The idea originated because they had “noticed there was a bit of a gap in the programming for adults” so came up with the idea of the after-dark activities for adults. “Our mission statement is to inspire all Victorians about science for life, so it’s about life long learning and people coming in and learning about science and applying it to their everyday life, so it’s for everyone,” she says of the interactive science museum, which is located just over the bridge in Spotswood, where the Planetarium is also located.

 

Given that Scienceworks is almost 20 years old itself, a visit there can also be a trip back in time for some. “There’s definitely a nostalgia value for people that have come along when they were children,” says Haire, who adds that the first generation of visitors as children are now returning with their own children.

 

But there are no kids at this event. Big Kid’s Night Out is a new initiative that forms part of a growing suite of adult programs presented at Scienceworks and there’s more planned. (The Melbourne Planetarium also run a number of evening lectures and screenings throughout February, March and August each year.)

 

Visitors on the night will be able enjoy interactive exhibitions such as Explore-A-Saurus and Sportsworks, take part in science demonstrations and experience a celestial mind trip through the galaxy in the Melbourne Planetarium, hosted by Astronomer Dr Tanya Hill.

 

Explore-A-Saurus is one of their latest exhibitions. “It’ll be a really good opportunity for adults to learn about palaeontology and it explains the way we know what we know about dinosaurs,” says Haire, whose own scientific background is in biology and genetics.

 

The hands-on exhibition explores the ways in which palaeontologists use fossil evidence to learn about how dinosaurs lived; from what they ate and how fast they ran, to what colour they may have been and even how they cared for their young. It also includes animatronic dinosaurs – herbivores Stegosaurus, Triceratops and Apatosaurus all come to life before your eyes, as well as the carnivorous Tyrannosaurus rex.

 

The Perception Deception series of interactive exhibits will also be open on the night, which challenge your ability to interpret information from your senses. Is your ‘reality’ different from that of those around you? How does your brain make sense of the world? You can test your audio-language, multisensory, visual and social perception and see how you stack up against your friends.

 

You can also compete against friends at Sportsworks, using your body in a different way, as you can race Cathy Freeman or test your skill as an extreme snowboarder or a soccer goalkeeper.

 

“We’ll also have a little show going on in our House Secrets area about density in alcohol and how to get the perfect layered cocktail, and the science behind the way that alcohol layers,” says Haire. “So we’ll be talking about how that happens, which has to do with the density of the alcohol and the sugar content – so your most sugary and your most dense ones will go to the bottom and as you get less dense and less dense and less dense you can make a layered pattern in the drink,” she explains, which is why grenadine sinks but green chartreuse floats.

 

So does that mean the “bartenders” (who are actually Scienceworks presenters with a background in chemistry) be handing over samples of these cocktails at the Big Kids’ Night Out? “Not of those ones but the ticket does include one drink and we will have a bar available, but we won’t be serving the layered cocktails – that could be dangerous!” she says with a laugh. Although these ‘scientific bartenders’ will be talking about what happens inside your glass, they won’t be talking about what happens when alcohol gets inside your body, which means they won’t have any insights from the laboratory for dealing with hangovers in this presentation. “It’s all about drinking lots of water, isn’t it?”