A Morning Went By QuickLeigh

I wrote a new story. 

https://steller.co/s/4nDaHMRexc9

Scooter Stack!

Well I feel like a bit of a goof.

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Had a great brekkie with the boys this morning.

We just had our floors polished upstairs. Massive feat moving furniture out and then back. Had great help from our neighbours and friends (Larry, Chris). We moved in downstairs with Jenn's mum for a couple of days to escape the dust and smells. Lots of in your face family time. Now the floors are done and we're about to move back in.

 And I decided a little celebration was in order.

So I took the family out out to the local Abode Cafe. It is always great to go there.

I love the coffee, the atmosphere, the service.
Jenn and the boys love it too. See Jimmy here loving his fried egg n avo on toast.

I had the mixed mushrooms.



Best of all, us boys can scoot there!
(I don't have a pic from our scootering this morning so here's one from yesterday's Southbank adventure for illustrative purposes. )

But on the way back, I must have been busy minding the boys. Before I knew it, BAM!

I was on the ground.

I stacked it going over the side of the footpath. Of course I manned up, got up and kept scootering, while blood dripped off my hands. 

Now I've got to move furniture with cut hands. So a couple of bandages to keep out the dust and donned rubber gloves to do clean the drawers and windows.

I remember falling down was much less of a big deal. 

Ditto bleeding.

Am I getting old?

Or just getting soft?

Scootering around the library

Sam and I went to the Corner of the State Library today to hear Engibear read the Engibear's Bridge book. Gee there were a lot of kids!

Torill the bridge engineer also jumped up and told us about how she builds bridges and how she tests them. 

 Sam tried to build his own.

Sam got to hang out with Engibear some more. Engibear was quite busy signing books and talking to the kids, we were lucky to get a photo with him.

 We had lunch outside, watched the Citycat ferries go by.

 And then back into it again after lunch!

And then after that we went scootering around the library together. We're doing that again in a flash. 

Our good neighbours Debbie and George gave us Daniel (their son's) old scooter. Now I can keep up with the boys. We went over the Kurilpa bridge and back again. 

A few times I was kinda worried the boys might trip and fall into the water. 

Don't tell mummy!

Bundy Strawberries

So here's my latest Steller Story:

Sam meets Engibear

Have you ever met Engibear?

Engibear is a bear engineer who gets things done with the help of his robot assistant, Bearbot.
There are two Engibear books, and I understand they are among the best selling books in the Engineers Australia bookstore.

My work friend Paul introduced me to the real Engibear. The real Engibear wrote the Engibear books with the help of an architect (Ben Johnston) and input from his children.

Sam loves reading about how Engibear went about building the bridge and his robot. There are lots of things to see on each page. The books are really well illustrated and very detailed - exactly the sort of thing I would have loved as a child.

I had the privilege of visiting Engibear in his cave with Sam the other day. I don't know who had more fun, me or Sam! I am visiting Engibear to work out how I can work with him to help kids get their teeth into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

Let me show you a new way of telling a story. I found it this past week. See the link below. I need not many more words.

Read this story on Steller

Let me know how you find Steller. I love it because I can whip up a story slideshow including video (that looks good!) in less than 5 min, from my phone!

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WHY?
In my early ramblings you might have seen how Sir Ken Robinson's talk shaped my view of education. I really think that in Australia we have a real opportunity and necessity to be world leaders in education.

1. We have some huge hurdles to overcome - climate change, water scarcity just to name two. It's affecting our country now, not in 5, 10 years time. 
2. We can't keep digging or pumping resources out of the ground
3. Innovation and entrepreneurial work is harder to offshore.
4. Australia cannot and should not compete in the same way as other OECD countries in mass producing education, and sacrifice innovation in the process.
5. We can't keep blaming the politicians because we (actively or passively) put them there!
6. We need a more informed electorate, how do we do that?
7. In the coming years, we need not only well informed leaders but followers and leaders with the right values framework, otherwise you'll have very gifted people with little empathy or concern for those around them.

So, how do we keep the twinkle in our kids' eyes as they go through school?

As my children grow through the school systems,  I want to play a part in helping teachers and parents cultivate this next generation.
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The Glory of a Fire

There's something glorious about a fire. 

People gather around it to shelter from the cold.

I took Sam to Gatton, my old stomping ground to join the international students from UQ overnight 

at Rex and Marg's place. It was a chance for international students to experience the aussie country culture and have their questions about their faith answered. 

St Lucia Bible Church and the Gatton Baptist Church got right behind this because quite a few were checking out Jesus. 

And we had a ball (a hot one too).

I had been there many times before and seen a big bon fire (taller than the average person) and kerosene soaked fireballs (below).

I had reservations though.

1. I had the work breakup party the following night. 
2. And then our 7th year Wedding Anniversary the day after that. 
3. It was freezing cold outside (I knew it was colder in Gatton, esp outside!)

But I still went, for these reasons:

1. Sam had seen the milky way but never in the country. I wanted to keep him excited about space
2. Rex and Marg and the whole family including Joel have helped me so much. They helped me find my way in guitar, electronics and my faith in Jesus, which has shaped so much of my life
3. I really wanted to support the international ministry.
4. International students are just great fun to be around.

SO how did it go?

I could tell you about it all, but you've got to see the video I made first.

Earthmoving experience with Jimmy

A few of you have asked me, why do I not often include Jimmy in my blogs?

It was more that he was not the one pushing the boundaries of development.
No excuses now.

Jimmy's speech has been growing at such exponential rate that we're flabbergusted all the time at what he can articulate. More on that later.

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Today I had to do some chores.

1. pick up parcel at Auspost
2. pick up some turkish bread
3. pick up groceries

Normally I would take Sam but this time I realised that I'd have lots of one on one time with Sam at the bonfire/camp event coming up. So I took Jimmy.

Next to the post office we heard the sound of machinery.  Diggers!

I was amazed at the depth of the excavations. From the other side the passers by would not have expected such a multi-story excavation. There were four machines. 

Jimmy was fixated for a good 20min until I realised how loud the noise was bouncing off the concrete walls. 

Then at the shops Jimmy had a great time sampling the fruit at the fruit and veg shop. 

Definitely a happy core memory for me. And Jimmy. 

The power of a question

I read today a great Quora question.

How can one make the most of one's youth?
A response by Rizwan Aseem caught my eye.




In short, Rizwan says you should get in the habit of taking care of:

• Your body
• Your mind
• Your relationships
• Your finances
• Your communication

He gave some very practical examples. Simple right?

What struck me was his acknowledgement of habits. Habits are these things that take a long time to cultivate, but you reap the benefits of habits many years late. Habits have made a world of difference in his life.

I turn 31 this year. 

In the last 12 months, I've just begun to realise the power of habits.

Taking out the rubbish. 

Making the bed. 

Learning something new on the way to work.

With habits these do not seem like chores. But on their own, at the start, they are so hard to get going.

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For other electrical and computer systems engineers, it would be like discovering the embedded system in your brain. Once you have configured it right, debugged it, it keeps running and running in the background.

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Still, there is an assumed "good life" behind the above question.

What is the good life you refer to Rizwan? 

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Selective hearing at age 4

I thought Sam at a very tender age had mastered selective hearing.

Sometimes he would ignore us completely. 

Sometimes we'd say something, and he'd say "Huh?"

Did I model that to him? 

And then recently we discovered he could not really hear. Thankfully there was nothing wrong with the ear drum or the stirrups etc. 

It turns out the eustachian tube linking the ear and the back of the throat can get blocked up.

For children this is more common because the tube is less steep, and drains not so well, compared to the adult. 

So for the time being I've been given the lesson of patience. How great it is for character building.

I've been quite short with Sam, thinking he's just been blatantly non-compliant.

Sorry Sam.

A most dangerous place at the park

Went to the most dangerous park in a while today.

Frew park. 

You could fall, get hit, roll down. 

In the hour and a half I was there with Sam and Jimmy, Sam got hit. He got pushed over. But I pulled him up before he fell down. Yes, I chickened out.

He bouldered up some steps and was about to walk across a ledge, 2.5m high. 

I hesitated. Do I let him or don't I?

To let him would be good for his guts, build some confidence, but then the risk of him falling and say fracturing his vertebrae would be suboptimal. 

I decided I didn't know enough about his coordination, and I could not look out for Jimmy. So I called him back, and said "I'm not sure I want you to go across yet Sam." I tell myself I'll do it if I can catch him if he falls, until he gets old enough and I'm sure enough of his step.

Seriously, this park is extreme. Take a look at the slides. Kids can fall a long way. I'm glad they still make parks like this - is this a wave against the bubble wrapped childhood?

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So I bumped into a neighbour at the park. There with his family, including all his 5 kids. 

He mentioned that this was a regular thing. How so, I enquired.

Turns out one of the dads decided to make it a thing to cook new things, and invite others to bring stuff too. And they do this once every few weeks. 

Imagine if more dads did that.

What a dangerous idea.

The weight of gravity

Today my son just learnt about buoyancy and gravity. My heart sings!

So I was packing up and putting some old clothes downstairs in the storage room. 

I came across an old book of mine, it was a tiny thin book on "Space". 

So I brought it up. When we moved in two years ago I thought I would not pull that out until Sam was about 6. Close enough.

When he came past me he went straight for the book.

By the third page, we talked about gravity, and how Isaac Newton discovered it.

We talked about buoyancy. I brought out a little pot. We floated and sank toys and talked about why balloons didn't fall down like apples if we dropped them.

We talked about the escape velocity for Earth. I tried to work out how to describe to Sam how fast 11.2km per second is. 

Can you think of a place far from here?
S: China.  

*Quick math scribble*

S: Do you know that at that speed we can get to China in 12 min?
Wow. That's fast. 

Yes it is.

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It's amazing how kids are good at pattern recognition.

Sam found some pictures of space shuttles. He remembered seeing these in another book.

And then some pictures of the lunar module.

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I had to go to do some yard work. Sam had loads more questions for me. 

It seems a shame to have to leave the hungry child. 

Photographing silence

Today Chirs, Matt and I (at work) took a photo of a quiet refinery.

Normally refineries are very noisy, with pumps, compressors, boilers, valves emitting large quantities of sound.

Today, our refinery was quiet. 

The three of us, namely Matt, led the group up the oldest unit on site, "the cat cracker".

142 workers stood on the steel structure.

We took our photos. Lots of clicks.

Here's a bad photo of a print (sorry, it's the closest thing I've got right now).

And then, when we were done, some were slow to come back down.

It turns out that people were enjoying the moment. Some were deeply reflective. The unit had been running for 50 years. Now it will be scrapped.




What started out as a documentary exercise has proved to be much more.

What kind of a man knows Rain Man

So Sam's hearing got better.

For a week or so, it was so nice to not have to shout everything.

And now, since he's had the cold in the last week, his hearing has gone down again.

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I watched Rain Man for the first time last night. (My wife fell asleep during our "date night". Yeah, we don't have  real exciting dates much these days, especially when she's preggers.)

The story starts out an estranged son Charlie (Cruise) discovers he has an autistic brother Raymond (Hoffman) after their father's death. The story unfolds as Charlie 'kidnaps' Raymond in order to get his share of the $3M inheritance. 

It was confronting to see how we treat people with disabilities in such a cruel and dismissive way.

In some ways, the autistic brother, Raymond, is much more gifted than Charlie is.

Also, I was uncomfortable seeing the frustration that Charlie showed to Raymond, who has these needs he cannot articulate. He has routines, and they result in quite specific requests:

Raymond: 12:30 is lunch. 

Charlie: What do you want? 

Raymond: Wednesday is fish sticks. Green lime jello for dessert. 

Charlie: You want another apple juice? 

Raymond: No, orange soda. Uh oh, it’s 12:31.

I was incredibly frustrated with Charlie's character at the start. What a self centred, impatient prick he was!

Susanna: You use me, you use Raymond, you use everybody. 

Charlie: Using Raymond? Hey Raymond, am I using you? Am I using you Raymond?Raymond: Yeah. 

Charlie: Shut up! He is answering a question from a half hour ago!

If you have been reading my blog for a while you would guess what I might say next...

It was not long into the movie before I got that sinking feeling. I am so often like Charlie. Short. Impatient. Self centred. In a hurry to get somewhere.

On a bad day, I realise I can fail to listen to Sam's needs. I think he's disabled in almost everyday when compared to me or others around me, an adult, and forget that he is probably much more gifted in many other ways. Like being happy. Being creative. Not seeing limits. Not having negative thoughts. 

All this comes from arrogance and ignorance.

Having Sam have a temporary disability like hearing degradation is good for me. And it has been good for me to learn to be gracious, to be kind, to empathise.

Here's an example when Charlie lost his temper with Raymond and pulled Raymond's head. 

Now imagine if your child kept a list like that. What if involuntarily, subconsciously, they did? Or someone did?

Charlie: What are you writing? What is this? “Serious Injury List”? Serious injury list? Are you kidding me? 

Raymond: Number eighteen in 1988, Charlie Babbitt squeezed and pulled and hurt my neck in 1988. 

Charlie: Squeezed and pulled and hurt your neck in 1988?

James and his vocab

It's hard not to observe the differences in our two boys.

Sam has always been about average or slightly above average in his language development. Kindy has helped HEAPS in his language development. We are so thankful for his Kindy.



Jimmy on the other hand learns like y=x^2.

He picks up on sentences really well.
His mandarin skills are probably superior to Sam's at present.
He surprises us from time to time the phrases he can churn out at 2 and 1/2 years of age.

Jimmy's got a few things going for him.

1. He likes to repeat things
2. He is determined, very determined to get answers. No problem repeating questions 20x.
3. He has Sam, who likes to teach him things
4. He has a relatively gifted head size for his body size
5. Sam has helped guinea pigged and weeded out some of our ineffective teaching practices

Walking with Emilysaurus

I'm a sucker for dinosaurs. 

I'm a sucker for kids and endless play.

Had a great time at Emily's 4th birthday the other day. 

It was a windy day but the afternoon sun beamed through the foliage.

Jimmysaur chomped through the cookies and all the other sometime foods.

Sammysaur ran after Emilysaurus and the rest of the herd.

For a moment time the sun didn't set.

For a moment we didn't have to hurry to grow up.

Often we wait til Friday, but that's kinda a way to hasten the kids to grow up. 

Why would you want to do that.

Switching modes

Nobody likes to be interrupted.
Particularly me.

Once I start something, I find it hard to put something down.

I recall once when I joined my mates in hunt for scrap copper after school one day. We were going to sell it at the markets and make enough money to buy gunpowder.

Yes, this was China in the 1980s.

It was dark when I got home. I got a big smack for not telling my parents where I was.
For some reason the thought of interrupting my adventure to tell my parents my whereabouts - it did not cross my mind.

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Often I'd ask Sam to stop what he's doing and listen to me.
Sometimes, he wouldn't hear me at all.
Sometimes, I hold back my dissatisfaction. That my child shows his father so much contempt. An instruction has been issued!

Sometimes, I don't.
I raise my voice.
Or worse, I get angry at my little man.

At the end of a long day it's possible to forget the world does not revolve around me.
It's not hard to turn a desire for my sons to be obedient, into a story about me and my needs.

I am well capable of it.

To tame the savageness of man

Some hailed this the greatest speech of all time.

No, not about his own dream.
No, not about going to the moon.
No, not about a new phone.

It's about how we move forward when dark forces pull us backwards.

Some days ago in Australia, we too saw a display of force. Against injustice. We saw a divide in our peoples.

To reclaim Australia?

On our streets our people showed this "savageness of man", to protest savagery and other injustices, at times with savagery.

Before today I have not seen this clip. Here are my immediate reflections:

1. Oh have we got something to learn about history?
2. True leadership comes at a great cost
3. Where is a leader like that, for our country? Please stand up.

What does this speech do for you?

Sammy and the shell

Stradbroke Christmas 2013

Sammy was scared of the crabs. He had it in his mind that they have claws. And they could nip him real bad.

Totally emotional response. Totally not founded on fact, right?

Caloundra 2015

Sammy was still scared of the crabs.

And then, Sammy was not scared anymore.

I don't know exactly what changed.

Was it the amount of these we found together around the rocks?

Was it how these hermit crabs were smaller than the other ones?

Was it that I casually caught them, and these critters were so timid they hid in their shells?

Apparently according to Kerry Spackman, some parts of our brains wire up at different speeds.
The part of our brain capable of emotion and movement get wired in first. And then in later years, the frontal cortex wire in later.

So if a child is particularly emotional at the time, they may associate a particular negative event with something else totally unrelated.

Given the severity or stickiness of that emotion, the experience may be burnt into a child's mind, well into adulthood in some cases.

This is a reminder to me as a parent to not thrust our logical understanding of the world and expect the child to perceive it in the same way.

How isolated and confused must Sam have been when I told him to "Harden up! It won't bite!" all those times.

Sorry Sam.

What's got more energy (Part II)

So I promised to write about me going to Sam's kindy.

Sam was so happy to have me there.

He helped me pass around the props. 

He had lots of questions. So many that I encouraged him to ask me afterwards.

He liked me sitting at the table with his best friends.

We ate raw broccoli, carrots and snap peas. Yup.

As for the presentation - well, I did it. Yup, kept their attention for 45min! Yeah, I wound up my talk when the kids started yawning.

Maybe they didn't remember that oil was a form of energy. Maybe they couldn't explain why the sun had E=mc2 next to it. Maybe they won't understand why the motor related to energy. Maybe they won't remember why they should recycle. 

It doesn't matter. Sam's dad showed up. He gave us green balloons. 

And the kids remembered not to touch the power outlets. 

Job done.

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Man what I'd give to be back in that room when the kids are singing and laughing during music. 

The world is so big to them. 

Children, Growing Up and the Climate

Was talking to another dad today about our kids, and the power that their friends have on them.

So who influences the peers of our friends?

Shall we blame the media? Schools? Government? Movies? Other parents?

Is it like the resolutions on Climate Change. Most agree that something needs to be done. Yet we wait for someone to do something first.

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I've been reading a great book.
Actually, I've started reading a great book. Like most things I do, I tend not to finish them.

It's called, Growing Yourself Up.

The main idea I've picked up so far is a systems view of relationships. Duh(!) you say, relationships require someone to relate to.

Yet how often does our model of understanding simplify a conflict or an exchange to simply us and them. Or, even simply about ME.

It's very easy to blame others, and neglect the idea that waves bounce back and forth from us and towards us. Do we stir up the wave? Or does it stop with us?

I remember a time when I was getting up Sam for not putting away the toys. He was around two and a half. He had been dawdling and playing, quite ignorant of his duties. When he eventually obliged, he first thing he grabbed an object that was on the floor.

He came to me and said innocently, "Where does this go Daddy?"

It was my shirt.


Now if you're married, I wonder if you have ever wondered,
"Why won't my spouse ... A/B/C"

A = be the first to apologise
B = think about my needs
C = get out of the bed to stop the crying

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Peas and watermelons

For a long time Sam did not draw or paint.

Jenn and I were starting to get worried that our boy was too much of a neak freak, and this was holding him back from being creative. Some parents let their kids make a huge mess during dinner. Most of the time we'd encourage Sam to be neat. Occasionally I might get up Sam for dripping tomato sauce on his shirt.

Sam has a great eating posture. Except sitting straight up means he's not eating and dripping over his bowl.

Jenn recalls when Sam first started Kindy last year, he would touch the paint with his fingers, and then decide it was too much for him. 

For some reason, in the last two weeks, Sam started to enjoy painting.

I see symmetry. I see balance. I see structure. I see colour. 

And then last week, this came out of the blue. Blew me out of the water. Assymetry. Bleeding. Overlapping. 

As a dad, this moment is a bit like planting peas, watching them grow and finding out you might have watermelons.

The end, or the beginning

So this is the first time I've told you in this blog that I work at an oil refinery. This may be the last time you hear me use present tense.

Unfortunately the refinery is closing down.
This weekend we begin shutting down the rest of the main processing units for the last time.
It will be turned into an oil terminal. If you have not heard about it here it is. 

Lots of really good people will lose their jobs come 1st of July. They are great at what they do and they are great people to work with. All these years of work that these people have devoted to the place, the hundreds of millions of dollars, will be turned into scrap metal. Just like in the Ariely experiment,  some people feel a bit deflated at present.

I heard on Triple J this morning a line that stuck: (this is what I remember anyway)

Life is like photos, you develop it from the negatives.

Needs a bit of revision now that we're in the digital era. But this reminds me of the classical stuff from Romans 5.

The prospect of being out of work, then job hunting, knocked back for a kickass job, then more job hunting - all this takes a toll on you. In hindsight, NOT getting what I wanted first time has been immensely good for me. 

First, it made me realise how much a job meant to me.
Second, it made me go and chase the bone a lot more.
Third, probably most importantly, it did good to break down my pride.
Fourth, the past year has made me appreciate how awesome this job has been, and why I've enjoyed working here.

Working at the refinery as and engineer has been the most kick ass job I've ever had. I've had opportunities to travel. To learn from people from across the world. To try new ideas. To see ideas come to life. To tweak and to play. 

(Yes, I've only had one real job really. But talking to lots of people I've had it real good for so long.)


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If you are a parent, and your kid asks about what a refinery looks like, take a look at this video that my mate made.

A bit like Ender Wiggins and the buggers, I feel it's my duty to tell the universe about the story of this refinery.

With or without eggs

Jimmy bumped his head on the in side of the bath on Sunday.

He slipped over trying to grab a toy. We have a bath mat to stop him slipping, but he must have stepped off it in his hurry.

He should have cried.

I waited for it.

But he didn't. He kept playing. Crying would slow down his playing too much I guess.
(And then there are days that the smallest thing from me or Sam sends him in tears.)

So I checked for blood and eggs. All good.



Perhaps we choose our reaction to something, more often than we think. Perhaps we need a little something to help us move on, with eggs or without eggs.

What's got more energy?

How do you explain energy to a class of kindy students?

I'm going to try it at Sam's kindy this Friday. Sam is very excited about me visiting.

I can't wait either.

First I'm thinking of talking about the various sources of energy. Starting from what they ate for brekkie. Then energy from fuels, like burning trees. And battery energy. And kinetic energy (moving stuff). And potential energy (stuff from high up falling down). And the ultimate source of our energy.

This will be the last time I get to don my refinery work clothes, so I'll definitely be talking about OIL.

Which kid does not want to learn how diggers need diesel, jet planes need jet, passenger cars need petrol, and great BBQ chefs need gas?

Oh and it turns out the kids are learning about recycling. So I'll somehow tie it in with saving energy.

My dream is to hear that kids went home and and told their parents about how we get oil out of the ground and into their world. 

Last time I did this one of the boys, Tom went home and went on and on about diesel and petrol and how they are made from oil. 

Watch this space to hear about how I go.

Steamy steam trains

Hats off to the people who do what they love, for the sake of what they love.

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Sam is turning 4 and last weekend we had a party for him and his friends at the Brisbane Bayside Steam Railway. The railway itself is a miniature sized station and a few kilometres of track. You get on at the platform, sit on the trains. You smell the burning coals that they put into the boiler, or hear them start the "diesel". And they take you for a ride around the bush.

It was a stinking hot day! The car thermometer read 40'C as we drove in. I couldn't stop sweating.

Still Sam's friends turned up. What champions. And the kids loved it! I was anxious about the heat - and whether we should have changed the venue given the heat. Then seeing the kids not phased - I relaxed some more. And the parents - who battled on too, enjoying the moment for what it presents.

I am heaps thankful for them.

Around and around on little tracks, the electric and steam trains ran. Up the hill, backwards to the remote station and back to the platform. There was even a "diesel" train (actually, it's a petrol). From what he's seen, Sam thinks you can pull start a diesel train haha.

It made Sam's day. 

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The guys who show up twice a month to put on the rides, and throughout the month to maintain the track - they are amazing. They commit themselves to a place for the benefit of others.

I am heaps thankful for them.

Don't break our tower!

It was a spur of the moment on the day. 

Then again, I've been waiting for this day for a long time.

Sam NEEDED to build a lego tower. One that uses every piece of lego we have.

First we sorted the bits.

We built a heavy foundation. I built one side and Sam copied what I was doing.

We built the beams brick by brick. We even graded them according to their colour.

And when it got tricky, I gave Sam more sorting tasks.

And then needed to use up all the train tracks. 

By the end I had to rob bits off the tower because there were not enough bits to build the pylons for the scenic bend. This is the scenic bend on the right. You can see the spire is now a little shorter.

And then we had an idea. What would it be like to go for a ride on the train?

 I cannot wait for real Lego.

Scooter, Museums and all that Frass

We took the boys to the museum and to the parklands for a swim.
Afterwards, I asked Sam what was his favourite part.

Looking for the eggs!

In the museum, there was an area where you could see stuffed Australian animals and touch some fossils. One display was a glass cabinet of stick insects.

And then near the help desk, there was a sign that said something like:

"Help us find eggs in the frass!"

Sam responded to the call for help.

Sam loved it.

Sorting through poo with some tweezers and sometimes without, Sam looked for tiny stick insect eggs and put them on a petrie dish.

It looks like many others before him enjoyed it too.

What a great lesson for motivating people:
Make it voluntary.
Make it slightly tricky.
Disguise the disgusting with fancy words.