Dr Graham Walker has just returned from 11 weeks in Africa, where his Science Circus Africa education outreach program was seen by a staggering 41,000 people across five countries.

There were rockets propelled by bicarb soda, levitating beach balls, and many things set on fire, but the memory that sticks with him is the humble magnet.

“I get tingly just talking about it,” he says.

“These kids - and even some of the teachers - have learnt the idea of magnetism, and they’ve done exams on magnetism, but they’d never held a magnet until we gave them one.

“Can you imagine holding two magnets together for the first time, experiencing magnetism?”

Dr Walker and teammate, Master of Science Communication graduate Joe Duggan,  lugged the magnets and other everyday items to be transformed into science experiments on their Science Circus tour of Mauritius, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Malawi.

The project, funded by the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Questacon and ANU, resulted in 162 local African staff being trained to perform their own science shows and other programs.

“We give them the skills, the resources, the training, and hopefully we’re planting the seeds so it can grow into local, home-grown science communication – and we’re already seeing those results,” Dr Walker says.

“In the long term, it’s going to generate a better economy and drive productivity at a systemic level for these countries.”

Dr Walker says Science Circus Africa is the result of the unique environment fostered by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at ANU, where he studied, and where he now teaches on the Masters programs.

“It’s not a place where people are sitting in ivory towers, stroking their chins,” he says. “They actually get out there and do prolific science communication.

“I’m wrapped to be at an institution where you can propose a fairly out-there plan like this and get support for it. It’s a credit to ANU that they’ll back something that no one has ever done before.”

Learn more about running away to join the circus with a postgraduate degree in science communication from ANU