It's Science Week!

Three super sweet & friendly vols, Elly, Kirsten & Laura (aka the three musselteers), report on their time lending a hand at the MDC trailer during Living Science...

On Sunday the 14^th of August the MDC participated in the first 2011 national science week event Living Science at the Queen Victoria Market. The event was all about exploring the science of food. There were plenty of activities for everybody to enjoy!



The focus of the MDC stand was the Mussel industry and how DPI are working to improve mussel farms in Port Phillip Bay. Samad is a researcher at DPI working on mussel farming and told us all about the interesting research he is working on to improve mussel stocks. The MDC trailer had lots of information and resources available about sustainable fishing, Port Philip Bay and of course the touch tank, which everyone loved.



We met Tubby the Robot, who provided lots of entertainment for the children...as well as us.




He even came with his own robot fish!

 

CSIRO had a demonstration on how to make your own sherbet, which tasted just like Wizz Fizz. All you need is: 1 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate (baking powder), 1 teaspoon of citric acid and 6 teaspoons of icing sugar. Sift all the ingredients together and you have your very own sherbet. Pop it into your very own marine decorated paper bag to make the experience even better!



Here we are filling out some surveys about our Science Week experiences, we of course rated it very highly.

We got lollies to reward our efforts...

...and even a free pen!

Melbourne Uni had a really cool demonstration about the science of making chocolate. We didn’t realise there were so many steps involved in making chocolate. Roasted cocoa beans are very bitter and we much preferred tasting the final product.

We all had a great day at the market and learnt lots. We hope everyone who visited our stall, had a great experience and learnt all about the mussel industry, once they realised we weren’t actually selling mussels. Many people asked us if the mussel ropes on display were for sale. They weren’t!

 Yumo! Thanks ladies!