Energy and motion was the theme of Questacon’s visit to the school, or specifically “an object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion will stay in motion, unless the object is acted upon by an outside force”.

From rocket balloons to human fidget spinners to pulleys, the students got a taste of hands-on science.

Questacon’s Joel Barcham said the demonstrations provided a different way of learning for the students.

“I find that I learn more when I get to do and when I get to see,” he said.

Mr Barcham, who travels around to schools with the program, said the Dubbo students had been great. They were full of questions, he said.

The Questacon team also enhanced the skills learnt at Apollo Estate recently around energy efficiency.

Apollo Estate won a Spark Tank competition with their project ‘Young People Learning About Energy Efficiency’.

There were 15 children who participated in Apollo House’s day of energy efficiency activities, designed to help them increase their understanding of how much electricity common household appliances use. The goal was to help their families with energy saving strategies they could implement at home.

The project was managed by Apollo House, working in partnership with TAFE NSW Opportunity Hub. Funding for the project was provided by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage through the Spark Tank project, managed by Skillset.

Skillset senior manager Ashley Bland said it was fantastic to talk to young people who didn’t know much about energy and show them ways they could save money.

“We plugged in a series of devices and they had to guess whether a lamp, a toaster, a TV or a kettle used the most energy. Most were surprised by the answer,” he said.

“Suddenly energy usage became real and relevant.”

Mr Bland said the kids could become energy-saving advocates in their homes and help their families to reduce their power bills.