Ignite your imagination in National Science Week 2013
Every year in August schools, universities, science centres and museums are organising events to celebrate National Science Week. Program manager Geoff Crane talks about some of the upcoming highlights.
National Science Week is Australia’s biggest festival. More than 1.4 million people joined in last year, and this year will be bigger than ever with over 800 public events across the country. If you include private events in schools and workplaces there are more than 1800.
National Science Week is a result of the incredible effort of volunteer committees in every state and territory, as well as contributed events by museums, galleries, universities, libraries, research institutions and schools.
Some major events in major cities include the Gold Coast Science Fair, Science Alive! in Adelaide, the Experiment-a-thon and Geoscience Australia Open Day in Canberra, Living Science and Market of the Mind in Melbourne, and Science in the Swamp at Centennial Park and the Australian Museum Science Festival in Sydney.
Regional Australia is not left out, with the DesertSmart EcoFair in Alice Springs, the South West Science Spectacular in Busselton and the Science Open Season in Launceston.
If you want to find other events to attend, you can have a look on our website or on the app we’ve just released for iPhone and iPad.
Public events uploaded to the Science Week website automatically appear in the app.
The app has a calendar of public events and lets you find nearby events via the map. You can also make a list of favourite events to attend throughout National Science Week.
We don’t have an Android app this year but hopefully we can develop one for 2014.
The 2013 citizen science project Explore the Seafloor asks people to join up as research assistants to help identify kelp and sea urchins in underwater images.
By tagging thousands of images the public can contribute to ongoing scientific research including into the effect of climate change on the undersea environment by tagging images that are then forwarded to researchers. In just the first days of the project more than 21,000 images have been tagged by over 800 citizen scientists.
Recently retired test cricketer Mike “Mr Cricket” Hussey, who is also a qualified science teacher, recently donated his time to appear in our community service announcement. As well as on TV you can see the video on YouTube.
There are 800 workplaces celebrating science and technology in national Science Week with a Brain Break workplace morning tea. Registered workplaces have received quizzes, science demonstrations to try and some posters and coasters. They’re not about donations but rather spending a few moments reflecting on the importance of science in our lives at work and home.

Geoff Crane is Manager of National Science Week.