Triple S - Science for School Students

Who knows where a simple idea may lead?

This document is currently under review!

1. Introduction
Triple S started at a University Information Evening (UIE) at Fremantle Town Hall in 1997. Christine Creagh, Publicity Officer for the Physics Department at Murdoch University, was standing back from the displays, lamenting to a colleague from Curtin University, about the year 10 students. The students came to the UIE for information but didn’t even know what Physics was. How could it be possible to interest students in a career in Physics if they had no idea about Physics?

Chris suggested there should be something like the UIE’s for year 10 students, which demonstrated the content and breadth of science. The Curtin Physicist agreed and invited his Publicity Officer to further the discussion. It was time for Chris to put her money where her mouth was. Tamara (Tiki) Swain, the Publicity Officer for Physics at Curtin, thought a science UIE was a good idea. So they went looking for a friendly ear from another university. Sato Juniper of Women in Science and Engineering at UWA also felt the idea was sound, as did Coral Newman from ECU a few days later. Some things seem to be fated.

Chris met with Sato to discuss how to go about getting the idea off the ground. There was also a meeting between Chris, her PhD supervisor Dr. Stephen Thurgate and Russel Elsegood who at the time was the STAR (Murdoch Peer Tutoring program) coordinator. Permission was given to explore the possibilities and Russ offered to help out as much as he could (what a brave man). So an initial meeting was organised at Murdoch on the 16 Oct 1997 of all interested parties (Table 1) to test the water for Science for School Students, which, quickly became Triple S. The emphasis being on S for science.

Table 1 People at the first meeting

The University of Notre Dame, while fully supporting the concept, declined to be part of the final group because they did not have an active science focus. With the recent development of their science and medical courses, they are currently exploring the possibility of becoming involved.

Since its inception there have been representatives from other science and teaching related institutions (Table 2) who have joined the Triple S group and people who have retired from the committee, generally because of change in employment.

Table 2 People who have been part of Triple S since 1997

It was felt by the people at that first meeting that it was necessary to put the “fun” back into science, that more could be achieved if all interested parties worked together on this project and that it was essential to involve the teachers. Since then there have been an average of 3 Science Fairs per year bringing this experience to over 2000 people (Table 3). In the initial stages Science Fairs were seen as one possible way of promoting science to mainly year 10 students and their parents but other years were not ruled out. Since then our target audience has grown to, “high school students, their parents and teachers”.

Table 3 Science Fair Stats

2. Finance, sponsorship and other evils
By the 13th of November 1997 finance was being discussed. Sponsorship was sought from various industries and individuals. We were unsuccessful in this endeavour because what we were doing did not seem directly relevant to those we approached. It was felt that for our idea to work the people to fund the project should be the stakeholders in the project. So the Deans of the Science faculties and divisions at universities were asked for money and have been our main source of funding ever since. DoCaT observed our progress for the first year and then contributed generously by matching the university funding in the subsequent years, until 2002. They found us to be an excellent vehicle for reaching the target audience for their Science and Technology policy. The university contribution of $1500 each (the cost of a newspaper advertisement) was seen as the commitment necessary for them to remain involved in the Science Fairs. We feel they are getting good value for money. At other times the possibility of sponsorship has been discussed but the main concern about outside finance is that the focus would, by necessity, shift from the primary purpose of promoting science to promoting the sponsor.

Scitech Discovery Centre continues to contribute in kind, by allowing our meetings to be held at that location, which is central and has free parking.

One of the reasons our costs were higher in our first year of operation was because we were hiring halls in which to hold the Science Fairs. In more recent years the Science Fairs have been held in school gymnasiums, providing a significant cost reduction. Another reason was the expenses associated with the Joy Festival. As we no longer have these expenses the contributions from the universities ($1500 each) and DoCaT ($1500 in 1999, $3000 in 2000) is enough to cover ongoing costs. It should therefore not be necessary to seek further sponsorship while circumstances remain the same.

In 2005, our Deans were asked to raise the contribution to $1775 each for 2006 so that we could attempt to cater for country students, during DHS Country Week in September. We envisaged that extra funding would enable us to offer transport subsidies to schools competing during the week. Each year we have been asked to take the Fair to the country, but logistically this is not possible, therefore this decision, to move the second Fair out of National Science Week to the week when country students come to the city, was made with the purpose of providing a good opportunity for those students to participate in the benefits which attending the Fair can bring.

The funding from the above institutions can also be seen as a mandate for us to spend the money wisely in achieving our aims. This means, amongst other things, that the Triple S members should not benefit monetarily from their association with the project. For example, while Triple S money may be used to pay for the meal of the representative from the host school at the debriefing breakfast (as a token of thanks) it should not be used to pay for the members’ meals.

The first public airing of Triple S took place at the ‘Joy ’98’ festival. We were invited to be part of the DoCaT Science and Technology stand. Scitech provided their road show at cost, we designed a science competition and persuaded the Murdoch Engineers to bring along their lolly-sorting machine. The cost for an engineer to attend the lolly machine; staff for the stall and printing for the competition cost close to $2000. Unfortunately, the attendance was at most 1/10 of the expected figure projected by the organisers, making this method of promoting the Science Fairs for that year an expensive disappointment. Feedback about the festival was sent to the organisers and can be found in archive #30.

3. Aims
The aims of the group were decided upon at an early stage and a target audience was identified. The aims have changed little with time and the target audience has widened somewhat to include all secondary students their parents and teachers.

Our aims are to:

• Encourage students to keep their options open by taking science and mathematics
• Promote the concept of science being central to the successful functioning of society
• Convey the scope and diversity of careers which are covered by the umbrella of ‘science’
• Excite students with ‘hands-on activities’ and mental challenges, thereby stimulating interest in the process and skills of science as well as content
• Provide practical examples of careers available to people with a science qualification
• Encourage girls especially to take a scientific career pathway
• Counter the image of the ‘mad scientist’

4. Guidelines
Guidelines have been formulated for the stallholders in line with our aims.
The guidelines are: -

1. Safety first – when organising your stand please put the safety of the public as a top priority. People using hazardous materials e.g. liquid nitrogen, acids, bases etc. should make sure that they are not accessed by the general public. If your stand is a wet area please make sure the floor is kept dry.
2. No course / promotional material in the main area – this is not a careers night, we are not promoting any university or their programs - we are promoting science. A common table will be provided outside the main hall, where all stallholders can place their promotional material for the public to take, if they wish. Each university stall will be provided with an A4 logo. Could other stallholders please respect the non-competitive spirit of the event and keep their signage to a minimum as well.

3. Other considerations

• Counter the image of “the mad scientist” - leave your lab coats at home.
• There is gender bias in the sciences (females – biological sciences, males in physical sciences). It would not do any harm to balance our demonstrator numbers in the opposite direction.
• If possible have your display relate to the theme of the Science Fairs, try to keep the technical jargon to a minimum and wear your nametags e.g. “Chris Creagh – Physicist”. In this way science will be seen to relate to the world around us and scientists will be seen as approachable people, doing a wide variety of interesting jobs.

5. Evaluation of our success
We have evaluated our progress from the very beginning with survey sheets for the public, stallholders and host school. These survey sheets are still relevant. They show that our publicity is working, the stalls are still interesting and what our catchment area is. They also stop us getting complacent! Another informal indication of our success is the number of contacts made between the schools, students and the scientists. From the first Science Fair, Murdoch Chemistry were booked to give a Chemistry Magic Show at a high school and have been a staunch supporter of the Science Fairs ever since. I have heard of students making contact with scientists who have been able to provide them with work experience, and small research projects for science competitions. Scientists have been able to employ part time and casual research assistants from people showing interest in their work. People from different universities have been able to network with their contemporaries and find out what others are doing - all of this in an informal, non-threatening atmosphere.

6. Practical matters
6.1. Location
It would be so easy to hold Science Fairs in localities where there is a culture of science - one school in particular lobbied for twelve months to have a Science Fair at their school. This would be effectively “preaching to the converted” and students in areas that did not have a reputation for science education would be disadvantaged. This is why it has been our policy to select host schools from different areas, North and South of the river, as far West as the escarpment and to hold Science Fairs at both public and private schools in the same year.

6.2. Layout
The layout of the Science Fair has to be considered before the event and the position of each stallholder plotted out on a scaled map. This masterplan is then used to direct the stallholders on the night so a certain amount of cohesiveness is achieved. The stalls are usually organised as follows: - Maths, Environmental Science, Zoology, Perth Zoo, Biology, Human Biology, Biotechnology, Sports Medicine, Pathology, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Triple S, Geography, Geology, Physics, Renewable Energy, Astronomy, Technology, Engineering, Aviation, Scitech, the school’s display, EDWA, STAWA, DoCaT. School displays have included such things as rockets (outside), electric vehicles, mousetrap racers and scream meters (outside).

6.3. Types of displays
The Science Fairs are informal learning environments and as such the amount of learning that takes place depends on the amount of involvement the visitor has with each exhibit they choose to explore. We have found from the surveys of visitors and stall-holders that “hands on” activities are enjoyed the most by visitors and staff alike and that visitors greatly appreciate talking to friendly, helpful and knowledgeable staff about the underlying science demonstrated by the exhibit. So if enjoyment is any measure of involvement then “hands-on” displays with knowledgeable friendly staff seems the best, though not the only, way to go.

6.4. Modus Operandi
For more explicit organisation of each Science Fair, the Modus Operandi is consulted. This is a working document perpetually updated as the process of staging a Science Fair is continuously refined and adapted to suit changing circumstances.

7. Helping people to find out about us
We have been conscious of the need to publicise the Science Fairs. To date we have had articles in local newspapers (it is usually necessary to place an advertisement to get a mention), SCIOS, Murdoch, Curtin, and ECU in-house publications, and air time on local radio. Our specially produced video has been shown on Channel 31, we have distributed fliers and bookmarks to local libraries, schools and recreation centres, we have a web site and have put up posters in local shopping centres. From the surveys we have found the consistently most effective way to encourage students to come to the Science Fairs is to get the teachers in the schools to promote them. This is why we have held after school briefing sessions for teachers from schools local to each Science Fair and presented them at the meeting with posters, bookmarks and background information about Triple S. The importance of the briefing sessions may decrease as the popularity of the Fairs increases. Another method we have used to ensure a reasonable number of attendees on the night is to organise at least one busload of students to come for the whole fair. To this end we have on some occasions paid for the bus.

8. Reasons I think we have been successful

1. We identified a problem and developed a solution that no one else was applying.
2. We started with a solid concept. Our image (logo, web site, letterheads) grew as the need for each developed.
3. We have a science focus and science is intrinsically interesting.
4. We do what we do professionally, efficiently, cost-effectively and well.

9. Future Science Fair Stall Holders
We have at times touched on whether to invite TAFE to participate in the Science Fairs and how the Deans at the universities would feel about this. Guidelines for inviting new organisations to join us emphasise that “No advertising” is the policy adopted with the present stallholders, and ideally this would be maintained when inviting such organisations as the Department of Minerals and Energy, CALM, and Bold Park to join the Science Fairs. Though the Bureau of Meteorology and the West Australian Maritime Museum have attended Fairs, other organisations such as World of Energy, WA Museum, the Perth Observatory and Underwater World have already declined our invitation to have a display. Reasons may include that they either do not see it as cost effective or do not have the personnel available to staff a stall. Scitech Discovery Centre is a central participant and other organisations like the Perth Zoo are regulars. Many of the above organisations that have had to decline our offer of a stall do support us, however, with free passes and prizes. These we use either as “door prizes”(relating to the numbered sticker everyone is given as they enter so we can track the attendance) or as incentive prizes for filling out the survey forms.

10. Branching out into other areas
Sato Juniper had been organising speakers for the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) project at UWA with great success before the Science Fairs were even dreamed of and suggested we hold talks concurrently with the Science Fair. A great deal of discussion was given to this idea. It was felt that creating a mock-up of a domestic setting for the speakers would give the audience something to relate to and some sort of theme for the speakers. Perhaps it would be possible to have scientists from several different areas of science discuss the setting in the context of their discipline. Various themes were discussed; the kitchen area was one that was hotly debated. Another possible theme was music. Some speakers were organised to talk on their favourite topic for the first Science Fair but because of the small attendance on the night it was decided not to go ahead. Since then we have found that the number of stalls are adequate for the number of visitors and it is felt that other activities concurrent with the Science Fair would detract from the Science Fair atmosphere by removing part of the visitor population from the main event. Talks and Science Fairs are two different concepts that don’t seem to sit well together, therefore we have stayed in our niche and left lectures and similar events to those who do them best, concentrating on what we do best - Science Fairs.

Open days at the universities are the only events that come close to the Science Fairs. The main differences between the two are that we take science to the public and open days bring the public to the science as just one of many activities on the university campus. We have a science focus with careers information of secondary importance while the open days are career orientated with the science as only one of the attractions.

11. Inaugural Spaghetti Bridge Building Competition
In August 2004 it was decided to hold a bridge building competition for year 10 students, to encourage their attendance. We had 3 teams build bridges from spaghetti and hot glue, that were tested on the night by adding weights to a bucket suspended from the middle of the bridge. The winning team came from Mirrabooka Senior High School and their bridge held over 2kg before disintegrating. The plan is to continue with this competition but change the building materials to masking tape and drinking straws which are easier to manage, less messy and don’t require power.

12. Things still to be done
One of the things we have touched on several times but not resolved is - What is the definition of Science? Does it include mathematics, technology, computing and psychology? The debate arises because scientists, media and the general public all seem to have different concepts of what science includes. We believe the term “Science” in the Triple S Science Fairs is a very broad umbrella and we remain open to any ideas and proposals for a final definition of Science. In an attempt to gauge our visitors’ appreciation of the boundaries of science we ran a competition in 2000 asking them to tell us “What in the World is NOT Science” (the prize was a flight in the ECU light aircraft). The majority of the answers actually said “nothing” and even the judges conceded it was possible to find science everywhere if you look hard enough!

13. For more information
The following will shortly be available on our administration website.
13.1. The Modus Operandi
13.2. Archives containing
13.2.1. Summaries of the survey sheets for each of the Science Fairs
13.2.2. Balance sheets
13.2.3. Minutes of the meetings
13.2.4. Standardised forms and stationery
13.2.5. Index of physical archives

Updated by Coral Newman 4/09/06