Questacon – The National Science and Technology Centre has been buzzing with huge crowds and exciting activity over the July school holidays.
The various state school holidays this year extended over four weeks from 24 June to 21 July. Questacon has received over 39 000 visitors in this period, and the Centre continues to be busy with ACT, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania on holidays until 21 July. Weekend periods have been particularly busy, with the Centre receiving over 7400 visitors on the peak weekend of 5-7 July, and over 6000 on the following weekend (12-14 July).
To keep the crowds busy, Questacon’s Excited Particles theatre troupe have been performing up to 13 Spectacular Science Shows and puppet shows daily for capacity audiences, as well as presenting science busking and roving characters. A visit to Dr Scar has been popular, with younger visitors enjoying sporting realistic and gruesome-looking scars through clever make-up tricks.
Questacon’s Q Lab has offered a variety of hands-on activities and experiments each day, from electrifying vegetables to create musical instruments through to making ice-cream with liquid nitrogen.
Our team of Gallery Assistants and Volunteer Explainers have been on hand to direct visitors, answer queries, and—most importantly—explain the science within interactive exhibits in Questacon’s eight galleries.
Questacon’s second facility, the Questacon Technology Learning Centre (QTLC) hosted approximately 300 visitors to the Gallery of Australian Inventiveness over the peak school holiday fortnight. The Gallery features interactive exhibits exploring the innovation process and successful Australian inventions. Visiting exhibition Henry Hoke: The Lost Tools of Henry Hoke tells the tale of a forgotten Australian inventor.
The QTLC also ran its first school holiday workshops where participants enjoyed a range of activities focussed on designing, creating and making. These were very well-received and will be on offer again in the October school holidays.
