Creative Science for Kids

It’s time to get buzzing, with five fun and fascinating fast facts about Australian native bees, an interview with Dr Elise Oakman, a scientist who knows a lot about Australian insects, and a cosy insect hotel activity for you to try yourself at home.

 

Presented by Jenny Lynch and Matilda. Written and produced by Jenny Lynch. Music by Purple Planet Music. Sound effects by Pixabay.

 

Buy tickets for ‘Creative Science: Mind Blown’ at Sydney Fringe 2026: https://sydneyfringe.com/events/creative-science-mind-blown/

Support the podcast to keep it ad-free! https://buymeacoffee.com/creativescience

Join the email list: https://www.creativescience.com.au/contact/

Creative Science: https://www.creativescience.com.au

Facebook: @creativescienceaustralia

Instagram: @creative_science_australia

 

Episode content:

00:00 2026 Sydney Fringe Festival show ‘Creative Science: Mind Blown’

00:17 Introduction and fast facts

05:55 Interview with Dr Elise Oakman

09:25 Insect hotel activity

 

Bug Hunt Australia: https://bughunt.org.au/

 

Insect hotel activity

You will need:

an empty milk carton or juice carton;

lots of thick and thin paper straws to fill the empty carton;

some sticks, leaves, and bark from a garden or park;

cotton string or jute twine

Ask an adult to help you open one end or cut off one end of the carton. Make sure you keep the other end of the carton closed.

Stand the straws up in the carton and use leaves, sticks, and bark to fill in any gaps between the straws. Make sure the straws are pushing against the closed end of the carton and pack the other things tightly, so the straws won’t fall out of the carton.

Choose a place to hang your insect hotel. The open ends of the straws should face North or North-East so they get some morning sun, but make sure the insect hotel is protected from direct sunlight in the middle of the day.

Tie the string or twine around the insect hotel and tie it to a tree, fence, or post. Make sure the open ends of the straws are angled down a little bit so they don’t fill with rain, or you can try making a little roof to stop rain and dew going into the straws.

What’s happening?

Female solitary bees can make nests in closed tubes like the straws in this insect hotel. They make the first cell in the closed end of the tube, laying an egg and leaving food for the hatching lava, before sealing the cell with some wax. The bee can then add more cells along the length of the tube.

Saturday the 15th of August to Sunday the 23rd of August is National Science Week in Australia, so it’s time to sow some seeds of excitement with five fun and fascinating fast facts about National Science Week; six scientists sharing what sowed the seed of their interest in science; an interview with Associate Professor Corey Tutt OAM about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Science Day; and a slimy psyllium seed activity for you to try yourself at home.

This episode is an Inspiring Australia NSW initiative and is supported by the NSW and Australian Governments.

Presented by Jenny Lynch and Matilda. Written and produced by Jenny Lynch. Music by Purple Planet Music. Sound effects by Pixabay.

Buy tickets for ‘Creative Science: Mind Blown’ at Sydney Fringe 2026: https://sydneyfringe.com/events/creative-science-mind-blown/

Support the podcast to keep it ad-free! https://buymeacoffee.com/creativescience

Join the email list: https://www.creativescience.com.au/contact/

Creative Science: https://www.creativescience.com.au

Facebook: @creativescienceaustralia

Instagram: @creative_science_australia

 

Episode content:

00:00 2026 Sydney Fringe Festival show ‘Creative Science: Mind Blown’

00:17 Introduction and fast facts

03:07 What’s a PhD?

03:36 Six scientists share what sowed the seed of their interest in science

07:32 Interview with A/Prof Corey Tutt OAM

12:10 Slimy psyllium seed activity

 

Special Guests:

Riley Easton, University of Technology Sydney

Sinali Weerasekara, Deakin University

Dr. Olivia R. Maurice, Western Sydney University

Lily Kenchington-Evans, University of Queensland

Shervin Zabeti Targhi, Western Sydney University

Dr Sara Chiaretti, Red Cross Lifeblood

 

A/Prof Corey Tutt OAM

Deadly Science: https://deadlyscience.org.au

Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Science Day: https://deadlyscience.org.au/pages/national-science-week

 

National Science Week DIY Science activities: https://www.scienceweek.net.au/diy-science/

 

Slimy psyllium seed activity

You will need: Boiling hot water, a heat-proof cup, two tablespoons of psyllium husk powder, a measuring cup, and a metal spoon for stirring.

Note: Psyllium husk powder can be found at chemists and in some supermarkets.

Ask an adult to help boil some water.

Add two tablespoons of psyllium husk powder to the heat-proof cup and ask the adult to add half a cup of boiling hot water to the cup.

Use the metal spoon to stir the psyllium husk powder with the water, and keep stirring until the powder soaks up all of the water and it turns into a gooey slime.

Wait for the plant slime to cool down and then you can play with it. It might be a bit sticky so make sure you a close to a sink so you can wash your hands.

What’s happening?

Plant slime is also called ‘mucilage’. By soaking up water and forming gooey mucilage, a seed can stay moist until it has time to grow. Mucilage also helps plant roots to push through soil and it’s used by carnivorous plants to trap insects. Some people use psyllium husk powder as a treatment for constipation. The psyllium husk powder works by causing a person’s poo to become larger and softer and easier to poop out.

It’s time to get high-tech with five fun and fascinating fast facts about artificial intelligence, an interview with Dr Lucy Andrew, a university lecturer who knows a lot about A.I. in education, and a short-term memory activity for you to try yourself at home.

Presented by Jenny Lynch and Matilda. Written and produced by Jenny Lynch. Music by Purple Planet Music. Sound effects by Pixabay.

 

Buy tickets for ‘Creative Science: Mind Blown’ at Sydney Fringe 2026: https://sydneyfringe.com/events/creative-science-mind-blown/

Support the podcast to keep it ad-free! https://buymeacoffee.com/creativescience

Join the email list: https://www.creativescience.com.au/contact/

Creative Science website: https://www.creativescience.com.au

Facebook: @creativescienceaustralia

Instagram: @creative_science_australia

 

Episode content:

00:00 Sydney Fringe Festival 2026 show ‘Creative Science: Mind Blown’

00:23 Introduction and fast facts

05:55 Interview with Dr Lucy Andrew

11:20 Short-term memory activity

 

Dr Lucy Andrew: https://adelaide.edu.au/people/lucy.andrew

Lucy talking with her deep fake digital twin: https://adelaide.au.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=0c79267c-6da0-4a6d-89f9-b3d100452cc1

 

Short-term memory activity

You will need: A friend or family member to test, some paper and a pencil.

Explain to your friend or family member that you are going to read out a list of ten words and they need to try to remember the list of words, in order, without writing them down.

Read out this list of words (or make up your own list of ten words):
Apple, Monkey, Pencil, Bike, Clock, Cake, Tractor, Oven, Shoe, Tree

Challenge your friend or family member to write down the words in order. If they have any trouble writing or spelling the words, they can draw pictures instead.

How many words did they remember?

 

What’s happening?

This activity tests short-term memory and there is a limit to the number of words people can remember. For most people, the limit is between 6 and 8 words. If someone was to do this activity over and over again, they would probably get better at remembering the list of words, until they could write all ten words correctly. After enough practice, the list of words might even stay in their long-term memory.

Learning is an active process that takes some effort and it usually involves using our past experiences to make sense of new information. If someone needed to learn the list of ten words (for some strange reason) they could try using those words to write a story or maybe come up with a pattern or a poem to help them remember the order of the words. Doing this would help use their existing knowledge of what the words mean to make some sort of sense of an otherwise random order of the words.

It’s time to get to work with five fun and fascinating fast facts about energy, an interview with Lee Constable, a presenter and author of books about sustainability, and an energy transformation activity for you to try yourself at home.

 

Presented by Jenny Lynch and Matilda. Written and produced by Jenny Lynch. Music by Purple Planet Music. Sound effects by Pixabay.

Support the podcast to keep it ad-free! https://buymeacoffee.com/creativescience

Join the email list: https://www.creativescience.com.au/contact/

Creative Science: https://www.creativescience.com.au

Facebook: @creativescienceaustralia

Instagram: @creative_science_australia

 

Episode content:

00:24 Introduction and fast facts

05:37 Interview with Lee Constable

13:14 Energy transformation activity

 

Lee Constable: https://leeconstable.com

 

Energy transformation activity

You will need: an object you can drop, such as a ball or a rolled-up pair of socks, and a rubber band.

Energy cannot be created nor destroyed. This is called the ‘Law of Conservation of Energy’. However, energy can change into different forms. How many energy transformations can you observe in about a minute?

Rub your hands together as fast as you can. You are turning moving energy into heat energy, with help from the force of friction.

Hold the ball or socks high above the floor. What you are holding now has gravitational potential energy, otherwise known as stored energy, let go and the gravitational potential energy turns into moving energy as the object falls to the floor, because of the force of gravity.

Feel the rubber band and notice if it feels cold or hot. Use both hands to stretch out the rubber band over and over again for a few seconds and then feel if the rubber band has heated up. If it has, some of the moving energy has turned into heat energy.

Stretch out the rubber band again so it has lots of stored elastic energy and then aim the rubber band away from you and anyone who is with you. Let go, so the rubber band flings through the air, turning the elastic energy into moving energy.

Look around you and see what other energy transformations you can see, for example, turning on a light.

It’s time for a heart-to-heart with five fun and fascinating fast facts about blood, an interview with Dr Patrick Capon, a science communicator who knows a lot about blood, and a heart pumping activity for you to try yourself at home.

 

Presented by Jenny Lynch and Matilda. Written and produced by Jenny Lynch. Music by Purple Planet Music. Sound effects by Pixabay.

 

Support the podcast to keep it ad-free! https://buymeacoffee.com/creativescience

Join the email list: https://www.creativescience.com.au/contact/

Creative Science: https://www.creativescience.com.au

Facebook: @creativescienceaustralia

Instagram: @creative_science_australia

 

Episode content:

00:19 Introduction and fast facts

04:51 Interview with Dr Patrick Capon

12:34 Heart rate activity

 

Australian Redcross Lifeblood: https://www.lifeblood.com.au 

 

Heart rate activity

You will need something that can measure 30 seconds, for example a clock with a second hand, a stopwatch, or the timer on a smartphone.

Feel the pulse in your wrist by holding two fingers gently on the inside of your wrist. If you can’t feel the pulse, change the position of your fingers and rest them gently until you feel the pulse.

The pulse beats in time with your heart pumping blood around your body, so it can be used to measure your heart rate.

Set the timer to measure 30 seconds and count the number of beats you feel in 30 seconds. If you double this number, that number is your heart rate in ‘beats per minute’. For example, if you count 40 beats in 30 seconds, your heart rate is 80 beats per minute.

Do some energetic exercise, like star jumps or running around, for about one minute.

Find your pulse again, set the timer for 30 seconds, and count the number of beats you feel in 30 seconds. Double this number and you will probably have a higher heart rate this time.

When you exercise, your muscles use more oxygen. A faster heart rate means the blood moves faster around your body and more oxygen can be delivered to your muscles.