Science Week fun at RCH

To celebrate National Science Week (15 – 23 August 2009), the Royal Children’s Hospital invited Scienceworks Programs Officer Lauren Bartlett to appear on their in-house television show Going Nuts with Macadamia. 

This show screens on CCTV in the hospital’s wards and helps young patients feel more comfortable during their stay. It features the charming and inquisitive sock puppet Macadamia (played by Lloyd Ellis, Senior Medical Photographer), and his human co-host Melanie. The show includes fun segments plus information to familiarise patients with common hospital procedures. It is recorded in an on-site studio each Thursday and screens four times a day.

To celebrate Science Week, Lauren was grilled on various science themes and shared the spotlight with hospital patients Maddie, Jaiden and Jonathon. Among the questions were “what’s in a light bulb?” and “how does air hockey work?” to “can I please have a free ticket to Scienceworks?” She also performed science demonstrations, showing viewers how to transform a drinking straw into a musical instrument.  The highlight of this episode was when Maca tried to play this ‘straw oboe’, a very challenging task for a sock puppet!

Kids at the hospital were also shown clever tricks that use simple properties of physics and chemistry. To highlight the Melbourne Planetarium, Lauren demonstrated Star Cards. These are paper stars that unfold by capillary action when placed in water to reveal their secret message. She also made a small boat zoom across a plate of water using a drop of detergent to break the surface tension.

Lauren enjoyed her television appearance very much. “Appearing on the show as a guest is an incredibly fun experience, but more importantly it is especially rewarding to meet some of the wonderful patients and staff from the Royal Children’s Hospital. It’s also a great opportunity for Museum Victoria Staff to speak to the community.”

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