On behalf of the students that attended the Solid Pathways University Experience Day...

Sludge, cockroach legs and volcanic rocks. We travelled all the way to the University of Queensland for a special event to discover new things as part of Solid Pathways. Solid Pathways is an on-line STEM course we participate in every week.

Sludge, cockroach legs and volcanic rocks were the main ideas of the exciting sessions we participated in. They took place in modern Science labs with expensive, enhanced equipment.

For the volcanic rocks activity we learnt new things about types of volcanoes and how they are formed. We also learnt what causes volcanoes to explode and the reason for the different rock types. We used hand lenses and strong, elaborate microscopes.

The sludge activity was about discovering marine life mixed-in with oyster shells that came out of robo-cages used to make new growth areas in Moreton Bay. We found lots of different species including a rare one. We were part of the smallest  group but won the competition for finding the most living creatures in the sticky sludge sample.

Most people find cockroaches disgusting but we enjoyed this activity about the touch receptors in the leg of a cockroach. We made a moving model using cardboard, syringes and fasteners. Also, we could poke a cockroach leg and on the screen it displayed the spikes on the graph about the way the cockroach’s touch receptors felt. We also saw containers used for the cockroaches to live.  All the experiments followed strict rules to treat the creatures fairly.

It was an exciting day because we learnt new things which we hadn’t seen before.  We recommend alot that people do Solid Pathways if you get the chance.