On Thursday, we were lucky enough to have some visitors from the University of Otago and Otago Museum come to teach us about science.

At one of the stations we learnt about the acidity and PH levels of different substances; vinegar, baking soda in water, coca cola zero sugar, lemon juice, and coca cola no sugar. We used PH strips to test the acidity of these liquids and observed the following:

• That soda is bad for you.
• Both coca cola drinks, the vinegar and the lemon juice had the same amount of acid in them. The baking soda in water was less acidic.

We also learnt about how scientists usually do not sniff substances to find out what they are – because they could be poisonous!

At another station, we made models of neurons and discovered how they connect and send signals around our brain when we learn different things. The adults teaching us also explained how there are different parts of our that control different bodily functions. It was really interesting to find out how when some parts of our brain are not working, other parts cannot function properly.

Many students found the 3rd station to be the most exciting. This was because we got to wear goggles that made your vision go crazy! When you looked through these goggles, it made part of the world go upside down! We tried to throw hacky sacks into buckets, and tried to walk in straight lines whilst wearing these goggles – it was very entertaining!

At the last station, we also learnt about the PH levels in our urine. We tested how drinking more or less water affects the colour of a human’s urine using water with food colouring (not real urine – thank goodness!).

Questions we had after this session:

•  

  How does your kidney influence so much or your health?

• How did the goggles hurt my brain so much

  Were the adults interested in science when they were young? What was their favourite part of science? How long had they been working in science? Who were the adults’ biggest supporter when they started showing an interest in science.