Australian Young Scientists Play Mind Games on Virtual World Stage

4 March 2003

A Canberra school will be one of just four in the world to take part in an innovative, online science event on Tuesday 4th March as part of an International TryScience Web cast event sponsored by IBM. The grade five students will join others from Malaysia, Mexico and the US, testing their memories against the clock to solve a fictional crime scenario called ‘Suspect Sketcher’.

Ten students from Canberra’s Telopea Park School will gather at Questacon, the National Science and Technology Centre in Canberra, to play their roles as virtual eyewitnesses. This live, real time co-operative event will use Web Video Collaboration, an IBM technology incorporating video, audio and webcasting, to link 150 children at five museums and science centres around the world. TryScience.org is a worldwide initiative to encourage children to study science and is sponsored by IBM.

The online Suspect Sketcher activity challenges the students to pay close attention to detail and demonstrate intuitive deduction – the basis of all scientific discovery. They see an image of a ‘suspect’, then are asked to sketch the person by choosing different facial features (nose, eyes, eyebrows, hair, skin tone, facial shape and mouth). When completed, a comparison is made between their sketch and the original image to see how well the students have remembered the details. Throughout the activity, an IBM moderator will facilitate interaction and exchange among the different nationalities.

Suspect Sketcher is just one of the activities available at TryScience.org, which aims to make the information resources from science centres all over the world more accessible for children, parents and teachers. In Australia, IBM has also supplied four TryScience interactive kiosks to major science centres throughout the country, including Questacon. TryScience.org is a free resource available on the internet to teachers, students and parents.

Questacon’s Education Manager Di Kinloch said: “We’re right behind TryScience because it’s a way to encourage more Australian kids to enjoy science. The students from Telopea Park School are looking forward to participating in the TryScience global webcast, as part of expanding their exploration and enjoyment of science.”

IBM Australia’s CEO Philip Bullock said: “TryScience.org and its related kiosk project are a key part of an overall effort by IBM to make science and technology more accessible and exciting both to children and classroom teachers. Hopefully we’re giving a head start to Australia’s next generation of young Einsteins.”

The other participating museums are Papalote Museo del Nino in Mexico, PETROSAINS The Discovery Centre in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, ThinkPlace at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and the New York Hall of Science in New York.