Well that was a packed and exhausting day!
Today we started at the Old Parliament House - now known as the Museum of Australian Democracy. This place is very interesting as we got given swipe cards that we touched to a screen which lead us on a 'choose your own adventure' style learning experience through Australia's Democratic past. We then got to conduct a role place in the old Senate - the boys acting was so awful it was hilarious - we had a great time impersonating politicians and some of their more colourful behaviours in the upper house.
Next we moved on to the 'Big House', new Parliament house - thanks to our bus driver Cam's love of fresh air and walking we took the short stroll up Parliament Mall (it was actually probablly quicker than loading/counting the 40 boys on to the bus + it used up some of their energy!) New Parliment House saw us complete two activities - a tour (very insightful with an excellent guide) and another role play (this time in the House of Reps).
We then moved on to the Film and Sound Archive - the information was interesting (lookng at Adverts through out Australan TV history) but the big high backed old style cinema chairs were so comfy - many took a super quick power nap! With this in mind we briskly walked to the National Library where we hit up the Cafe for a energy boost (COFFEE/Hot Chocolate).The boys were amazing as they have been without all such drinks since our first travel day and there has been no whinging - they were extremely greatful and the gesture paid off as we were all pleasently suprised by our tour of the National Library. The main reason our tour was so interesting was Ben our tour guide who was just amazing and his enthusiasm was contagious. We also meet ISSAC the automated/robot book trolley that assists on the 3 below ground levels of the library.
To finish our day out off we headed to Questacon where it was so enjoyable to watch the boys simply playing! They mucked around and tried all that was on offer, including the 6.2m free fall slide.
Upon return to camp we had our dinner and a quick change into our Quiz Night attire. I was truelly impressed by the efforts and ideas of the boys to this and it really added to the atmosphere. Overall however they were pipped by the teacher/Fairy WIngs group - the prizes they won however (portable usb power chargers) were quickly handed out to exemplary students that have just be consistently amazing or gone above and beyond throughout camp - Congrats to: Lucas Purdie, Matt Flowers, Harry Fenner, Mitch English and Tom Jessop. Second place/student winners were fittingly the 'Indian Match Fixers": Kynan Ganza, Andrew Tran, Ryan Fox, Michael Hardie and Max Fell. I am certain all enjoyed the night.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Canberra and camp comes to an end. We have a fairly light day tomorrow with a bit of time on the bus (I guarentee this will be spent sleeping by most students!) We have: Govenment House, the Zoo (also possibly the aboretum) and then Deep Space. We will return to camp for one of the funniest nights - how to pack a suit case '101' - as teachers we love to watch how the boys try to get everything back into their luggage - it all came here it all has to go back! This is not helped by the heap of clothes that were pruchased at the AIS!
