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Inquiring minds
When Ande Hunt grows up, he wants to be a scientist. So it was a dream come true for the nine-year-old Russian boy when he had the chance to meet and talk to dinosaur hunter Professor Pat Vickers-Rich while visiting Monash earlier this year. Professor Vickers-Rich, chair of palaeontology at the university, is also director of the Monash Science Centre, a centre established as a resource for educating children about science and introducing them to working, hands-on scientists. Last year, more than 30,000 school children took part in programs offered at the centre on Monash University's Clayton campus. Now, after nine years of activity, the rudimentary premises are about to be set aside for a new $4.2 million environmentally friendly building catering for the growth in community demand for science education. The new centre will open to school and community groups in July this year. While visiting the university, Ande took a tour of the original science centre and spoke to Professor Vickers-Rich about dinosaur bones, volcanic eruptions and the life of a scientist. When you were nine years old, did you want to be a scientist? Yes, Ande, I did. I wanted to be an entomologist, which means I wanted to study insects. I remember collecting all kinds of insect specimens when I was about four. I was really interested in all the different categories and wanted to know, for example, what the differences were between grass-hoppers and cicadas. I didn't really think I'd like to be a fossil hunter until later. As a scientist, what do you normally do? What I usually do is look for bones. We have a site at Inverloch in south-eastern Victoria, where we go each year when the weather is fine to unearth rocks that, hopefully, contain dinosaur bones. I use these bones and other information to try and piece together a picture of what animals would have lived in that region about 100 million years ago. I try to work out what the climate would have been like and what kind of environment existed back then. How do you know where the dinosaurs are? I don't, but I use a geological map to help me. A geological map is made by people who study the rocks in a certain area. On the map, they mark the ages of the rocks found in the area and what they are made of. I know that if I'm looking for dinosaurs, I need to look at rocks that are between 240 million years old and 65 million years old. Once I've found an area with rocks of the right age, I have to work out if they are the right type. We need sedimentary rocks, ones that were laid down in a river or a lake. There's no use looking for rocks that were laid down in volcanos, because you don't find too many dinosaurs that survived swimming in lava. Apart from digging up bones, what do you do at Monash? Well, I'm also involved in the Monash Science Centre. The centre is a place where we take some of those dinosaurs we've been talking about and put them on display, so children who are interested can see them. If your school was here with you, we would also go and meet scientists who talk about what they are doing. Children who take part in our programs can learn about how clouds form, what dinosaurs looked like and what makes some Australian mammals different. What advice would you give a nine- year-old wanting to study science? I would say use your curiosity as much as you can and ask questions. Of course, you need to do the normal things, like taking your maths and science courses, but don't forget arts, language, music and philosophy. Get a broad education, because the more you know, the more novel ideas you'll come up with. The new Monash Science Centre will open in July. For more information, visit the website at www.sci.monash.edu.au/msc/ |
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For a visiting Russian boy, the
opportunity to talk science with
one of Australia's most eminent palaeontologists was not to be missed.
At the new Monash Science Centre, such chats will become commonplace for Australian school
children.
DEREK BROWN reports.