Science festival

Last week, apart for birthdays and rabbits, was the Science Festival.  It is on every 2 years in Dunedin, and there are loads of activities, mostly free.  We went to as many as I thought I could cope with, which meant a busy week.
Saturday the 9th was the opening day at the University so we went along early to get a decent park and because Hannah and Daniel were booked into an Orokonui workshop, "Forest Forensics".  That was the best Orokonui one we went to, as they had to compare hair samples and footprints and DNA to work out that it was a Jack Russell terrier which killed the kiwi.  While they were doing that the rest of us looked at the various displays, which were mostly very interesting/fun.

Food Science Dept: How much fat in various takeaways

Inflatable walkthrough brain

Tank of sea life - Marine Research - they gave us 2 excellent identification brochures
on the Rocky Shore and the Sandy/Muddy Shore

Anatomy Dept

Electronic Neuron

Make a drone fly using your brainwaves

Struck-by-lightning simulation

Some of us had a go at the Psychology Dept.'s Stroop test, which was tricky.  The Stroop test shows you words in different colours and you have the type in which colour the word is (red, blue or green).  This sounds straightforward until you find out that some of the words are "red", "blue" and "green", but in the wrong colours.  So when "red" comes up on the screen, it's really hard to press "B" for blue when your brain perceives "red".
There was also a machine which could tell you your weight, fat% and muscle% and a few virtual reality games, DNA testing machines, anatomical models, craft for the younger kids (decorating a blown-up latex glove, and colouring-in), reflex testing and many other amazing things.  We'll be back next time!