Spring into Questacon

31 August 2004

Questacon in Canberra is bursting with colour in Spring. Downstairs the robotic dinosaurs are roaring, upstairs the giant animated crocodile is rearing up and in the theatre the Little Flower Bulb puppet is singing her way to the surface.

Questacon - The National Science and Technology Centre is the place where science and technology blooms into life. Visitors go on a journey of discovery through over 200 hands-on exhibits in six huge exhibition galleries.

Inside Questacon you can expend that springtime energy by freefalling for six metres, facing up to a five foot hairy funnel web, or shaking up the whole family in the Earthquake House. The newest exhibition is Eaten Alive – The World of Predators. This new interactive science exhibition explores the amazing range of techniques used by predators to find and capture prey.

Eaten Alive contains three large robotic animals – a huge hairy funnel web spider, a snarling saltwater crocodile and a slithery death adder. There are also interactive exhibits, featuring over 50 different animals – either predators – or their prey. Featured animals include lions, sharks, frogs,

echidnas, snakes, snapping shrimp, veiled chameleons and snakes. In Spring we’ll be demonstrating science with drama and theatre all through the Questacon building. You might see the Excited Particles – Questacon’s very own theatre troupe on stage as Russian Astronauts, in character as Albert Einstein amongst the exhibits, in the foyer as the Fairy with the science of flight, or in the Little Flower Bulb puppet show as a wriggly worm. Wriggly and the outrageous Spring flower puppets will show the littlies how Spring works in the world of nature. He’s not just cute – he is educational!

And once you’ve soaked up all the Springtime science inside Questacon, why not pop outside for a picnic lunch by the lake. Questacon is centrally located inside the Parliamentary triangle, surrounded on four sides by the National library, Old Parliament House, the National Gallery and High Court, and Lake Burley Griffin. Visit us and spring into science this Spring.