Year 7 Centre for Life

By Victoria Peleva, Year 7

On the 17th of July, the last Monday of the school year, a group of Year 7 students went on a trip to the Centre for Life. It was jam-packed with cool chemistry experiments, terrifying dinosaurs and shows with a bang!

First we paid a little visit to the Dino Jaws exhibit with ten lifelike mechanical dinosaurs and information on their everyday lives. Did you know for example that dinosaurs who stole other dinosaur eggs were called Oviraptors? The whole experience was terrifyingly terrific.

Next we went to the Planetarium where we watched a fascinating video called ‘We are aliens’. The video was conquering the question of ‘Are we alone in the Universe?’.

After that we went on a 4D motion ride with an action packed 3D video and smoke machines. This ride threw you all over the place as you raced through an abandoned world.

Before lunch we took part in a chemistry experiment in the Centre for Life lab. We tested various materials to see how well they absorbed carbon dioxide, in an experiment related to the oxygen-related explosion on Apollo 13. The five materials we tested were marble chips, vermiculite, rock salt, cat litter and soda lime. Soda lime was the best.

Straight after lunch was when we went to the Curiosity Zone. We explored every part of it and it had our minds blown! Then there was the Science Show. The Science Show was amazing and had bangs, explosions, crackles and pops. At the end the host saved the best thing until last as she shot underpants out of a cannon, all in the name of Science. Finally to top the day off we went to the gift shop before going back to school.

I would highly recommend this trip to people of all ages as you learn new interesting things in a fantastically different way.