Monday is supposed to be the quietest day at the museum. That was not the case this Monday, as we had four or five tour groups filter through the lab, each with fifteen to twenty children in tow. That means that my projects were put on hold, as I had to join the volunteers in making sure the kids were entertained, learning, and most importantly, not breaking our stuff. This meant that I explained the process of 3D printing about fifteen times to various ages with various levels of understanding. This variety challenged me to explain concepts that were so complex that I didn’t fully understand them, to children who would be content if I simply said that the reason the infra-red camera could pick up their motion was “magic”. However, I didn’t succumb to the easy explanation temptation, and I used various analogies and physical demonstrations to explain protein synthesis, basic electronics, the infra-red light spectrum, and the fact that no, they couldn’t take home any of the 3D models. Overall, however, it was a fun day, due mostly to the funny, often surprising interactions between the children and I. However arduous it was explaining Quaternary protein structure and amino acid linkage synthesis ten times in ten different ways, I had a great time stretching my creativity to new heights – or, if we’re going by relative heights between me and the students – new lows!
