Roadshow puts fun spin on science

If Stars Wars battles were real, they would be silent because there is no sound in space and young humans with good hearing register sounds for longer than older people.

Those were just two scientific facts shared at Keith St School last week during a workshop with travelling science roadshow instructors Anna-Sophie Winter and Andrew Beale.

Keith St School was hosting the roadshow in Whanganui, and Huntley School from Marton were visiting to participate in workshops and try out the roadshow's interactive exhibits.

Keith St principal Linda Ireton said a group of students were working with roadshow staff to help visitors from other schools understand how the exhibits worked.

Children and adult visitors could learn about nutrition, the human senses, health, weather conditions and natural disasters.

The roadshow visits more than 100 schools from the Far North to the deep South each year, delivering programmes to support school learning for children up to Year 10.

The National Science-Technology Roadshow Trust also supports science, technology and innovation to the wider community by creating, producing or delivering exhibitions such as the Future Food Roadshow, the Innovation Story and Dinosaur Footprints.

Primary and intermediate teachers can receive support from the trust's other area of action, the Sir Paul Callaghan Science Academy.

Renowned scientist Paul Callaghan grew up in Whanganui and attended Wanganui Technical College (now Whanganui City College) before earning his first degree in physics at Victoria University in Wellington, and his doctorate at Oxford University in England.

An illustrious career lecturing in sciences at Palmerston North and Victoria universities, and the publication of many books and articles, saw him gain international recognition. He was knighted in 2009 and named Kiwibank's New Zealander of the Year in 2011 before he died from cancer in 2012.