My name is Lily O’Connor and I am a student at the University of Sydney doing a Master of Museum and Heritage Studies. As part of my course, I have undertaken an internship with Catherine Beehag, Program Producer (Applied Sciences) at the Powerhouse and the Programs team at the Powerhouse who have been preparing for Sydney Science Festival 2023. A major part of this preparation was for two science-themed Powerhouse family days, Family Day: Science (Castle Hill) on 12 August and Family Science Day (Parramatta) on 19 August. This is a blog post reflecting on my experience as an intern and sharing what I have learned from my experience with the Programs team.
My main task during my internship with the Powerhouse Programs team was to organise the Volunteer Discovery Stations for the two science focused Family Days in Castle Hill and Parramatta. I ordered plastic tubs to transport the stations in, because they are normally kept in large black boxes with drawers and wheels inside the Ultimo museum, which are not portable. I wrote a list of all the materials to take as part of the Discovery Stations. I decided to leave out some materials in the stations that were less relevant to the 2023 Sydney Science Festival theme, “Trace”. I found extra drawing materials in the Programs store cupboard in case this would be needed for the drawing discovery station. I also wrote some accompanying materials that were sent to volunteers before the family days that related the Discovery Stations to the trace festival theme to assist with interpretation and engagement at the family days. On Saturday August 12 I went to Castle Hill and assisted with the set-up of the Discovery Tables. I worked with the volunteer team on communication and engagement with families throughout the day. This was fun and rewarding, as I got to make connections throughout the days with visitors and volunteers and had many discussions with families who were passionate about science. The next Saturday August 19 I went to Parramatta and helped set up the stations for the day. This family day was much busier, with around 8000 attendees. There were more volunteers working at the stations on this day, and more staff and many things to see and do both inside the Phive space and outside in Parramatta Square. I facilitated family engagement at the volunteer stations throughout the day and helped cover some breaks at other stations such as the rocket building activity. The volunteer discovery stations were successful at engaging families with scientific concepts and ideas, and fun hands-on activities at both the Parramatta and Castle Hill family days. There was a high volume of visitors who came past the tables and engaged with the volunteers, and who spent much longer than five minutes at the different stations. I noticed that many visitors had questions for the volunteers regarding the models on display and the scientific concepts the stations demonstrated. The volunteers that were present on the day were incredibly knowledgeable about the stations and the science behind the activities and models at the different stations. For instance, Kim who came to both family days was an expert at using the Saturn V Rocket Lego model to demonstrate to visitors of all ages how a rocket works. She was an excellent storyteller and communicator, engaging whole families in her explanations.
At the Parramatta Family Day, another volunteer Cédric demonstrated the workings of the mBots to visitors throughout the day. His understanding of the coding behind the various mBot programs allowed visitors to learn about the workings of the robots while having the opportunity to control the robots’ movement themselves. It was inspiring to work alongside the energy and passion of these volunteers for science and for visitor engagement.
The drawing focused Discovery Station involved activities like the spirographs, a ‘five second scribbles’ activity and complete-the-shape drawing activities. As Parramatta Family Day progressed, the volunteer team realised there were many very young children for whom these activities were challenging but who were wanting to draw and engage in the activities in some way. Cate purchased more paper as we were running low at this station and bought some tracing sheets, stickers, and coloured pens for the station, which were popular with very young children and their parents for the remainder of the day. I also assisted at the paper rocket making activity at the Parramatta family day, and the Rubik’s Cube station at the Castle Hill family day, which were fun and engaging for young children and their parents. At the rocket station, once the concept was explained by a Visitor Services Officer/Program Delivery Officer/Volunteer and the rockets were demonstrated, families could work together to create the rockets. Often, parents or a VSO/PDO/Volunteer would help their children with the cutting and gluing or taping part of the activity if needed once children had coloured in their rocket. This was a popular and collaborative family activity.
During the recent Winter School Holidays, the programs team ran a drop-in activity, Follow A Line, which was inspired by the exhibition A Line A Web A World. The activity invited visitors to explore string as a drawing material – creating lines, webs and worlds with string drawing to produce an artwork they could then take home.
This popular activity was enjoyed by visitors and volunteers alike. Our Visitor Experience volunteers enjoyed assisting the programs team in guiding visitors in weaving their creations. While our Textile Centre volunteers admired the activity with it’s effective use of simplistic materials to create beautiful woven artworks and foster an interest in lacing and weaving.
With the school holidays now over, we are thankful and excited that our volunteers can continue to share this wonderful creative activity with our visitors. We have plenty of lacing templates and coloured string available for hours of fun for visitors of all ages to enjoy.
Being a part of both family days was an incredibly positive experience for me as an intern. I was thrilled to be part of such an action-packed day. All the staff, volunteers and visitors were engaged and excited to be there. Having more staff and volunteers rostered for the day in future could help with managing such large visitor numbers, and perhaps more space could be left between and around the different stations inside the Phive foyer to create more visitor pathways and flow. Overall, the reactions from visitors toward the Family Day in Parramatta were extremely positive. Many commented that they were glad the Parramatta Science Week family day was happening again. One visitor said they had come to Family Science Day in 2022 and enjoyed it but felt that this year it was bigger and better, with more to see and do. Multiple visitors that I spoke to on the day commented that the Family Day was well organised, and they also noted it had been very welladvertised. From my time as an intern with the Programs team at the Powerhouse, I have learned how extensive and far in advance programming and organising for events like the Sydney Science Festival must start. There were many events running for Sydney Science Festival, including a Research Symposium, the Atmospheric Memory exhibition opening, Castle Hill and Parramatta science themed family days, a science-themed Powerhouse Late, and more, many of which I had the opportunity to attend. I have learned from Cat about the huge volume of behind-the-scenes work that is required before, during and after a program to make sure everything runs smoothly. I have also learnt that problem solving and being adaptable to making changes on the spot is a necessary skill. For example, the Weather Cross that was to happen on TV with Powerhouse staff, television presenters and students from Ultimo Public was cancelled by the television network the night before it was due to take place due to unforeseen circumstances. Another example was the decision to purchase more materials for the drawing discovery station during the Parramatta family day due to the sheer numbers of children in attendance and the popularity of the drawing activities. Problem solving and a willingness to search for solutions to challenges that arise are key skills for people working in this area. Through my internship I have also gained an understanding of science communication, and the demand that exists for science public programming. The Sydney Science Festival was filled with programs that provided various exciting ways of communicating about science to a diverse public and were directed toward people of a range of ages and backgrounds. The festival’s programming aimed to make science accessible to more people and reach broader communities than events and programs located at the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo could reach on their own. In particular, the location of the family days across different sites that are more accessible for different communities across Sydney allowed them to reach a wider audience.
During my internship I got to experience some very fun and unexpected parts of the planning process. I went with Cat to see Neil in the Workshop at Ultimo to see his preparations for the science experiment demonstrations for Saturday. I got to participate in a methane bubble experiment where the helper’s hand appears to be set on fire. Michael and I went to buy ingredients for making liquid nitrogen ice cream, which was a very popular demonstration at the Parramatta family day. Pip, Michael, Paul and I made a trip from Ultimo to Parramatta and back before and after the family day to transport various materials needed for the family day. Through the internship, I learnt that it is effective to provide different ways of communicating about science so that there are options for different kinds of learners and people of different ages and interests.
At the Parramatta family day there were hands-on activities, demonstrations of scientific concepts by experts, science-related musical performances, scientific models, interactive science experiments, a keynote talk from an Australian astronaut in reserve, a ’meet a scientist’ area where you could ask questions and talk to an expert and many more. There were explanations and demonstrations of a variety of scientific concepts for visitors with different interests.
I found it really inspiring to see how popular the Parramatta family day was. This was an example of a museum collaborating with other institutions and organisations to create programs outside the physical space of the museum, reaching broader audiences and communicating about science in a different way than a traditional museum exhibition would. From my time as an intern, I have learned that program producing involves communicating effectively with stakeholders and partners, other producers, and other staff within the organisation. At the Family Science Day at Parramatta, the briefing beforehand and debrief afterward were a positive way to bring all the staff and volunteers together and make sure everybody was on the same page, had a chance to ask any questions and provide feedback on their experience to make constructive changes for the future. In this way everybody in the team was heard and their feedback valued when reflecting on the festival and how it all went in practice on the day. I have also had the opportunity to learn about the post-program process. Analysis and reporting must be done, particularly in discussing what was done well and what could be worked on for next time. This is an important part of program producing that would also be valuable in many areas of museum work. I am grateful to have had this opportunity to learn from such a supportive and inspiring supervisor and to have been an intern with the amazing Powerhouse Programs team for a short time.
Lily O’Connor
Powerhouse Sydney Science Festival Intern 2023
All photos included in this blog post were taken at Family Science Day at Parramatta on August 19, 2023. Credit for these photos goes to the City of Parramatta and photographer Maja Baska, and to the Powerhouse and photographer Andy Roberts