Ever had a conversation about science at the pub? As part of National Science Week 2015 (NSW), a team of reporters took part in the “Adult Science Quiz” at the Graemian Centre (Graeme College) on Tuesday (4 August).
Ever had a conversation about science at the pub? As part of National Science Week 2015 (NSW), a team of reporters took part in the “Adult Science Quiz” at the Graemian Centre (Graeme College) on Tuesday (4 August).
And failed miserably… The event gave science-lovers – and those who weren't so sure – a chance for some healthy intellectual competition and to learn from the science-themed quiz questions.
The quiz was organised by SciFest Africa and The South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA) – which "aims to advance public awareness, appreciation and engagement with science, engineering and technology in South Africa" and is part of the National Research Foundation.
The aim was to get not just children but grown-ups thinking and wondering about science during NSW.
The quiz included questions from a range of scientific disciplines – including biology, chemistry, IT, geography and the history of physics as well as science-related music questions (songs that all had 'light' in the title as this year's NSW theme is 'the year of light') and current affairs, the latter two helping the reporters to achieve some legitimacy – but not enough to get into the sudden death between leading teams ‘The Rogue Element’ and ‘The Wombats’.
“The Wombats” were the eventual winners, and took home gift bags of wine, chocolate and some ‘surprises’.
With a generous provision of snacks to aid the emotional eating inspired by trailing the imaginatively-named teams, the reporters’ team resisted the urge to 'ask Google' or 'Shazam' to help them claw their way up the score-board.
And despite the lack of points, the team went away having learnt that the Windows command 'Ctrl+Alt+Delete' is also known as the 'Vulcan Nerve Pinch" and, that 'hippopotamus' means 'river horse'.
The reporters didn’t leave empty-handed either, as they were nominated for the prize of ‘shots of shame’ after suffering the most spectacular defeat on the night — basically winning the Wooden Spoon.
