What sparked your imagination

  • Author(s)
    Karen Player
  • Category
    Education
  • Published
    16 August 2015
  • Read time
    2 minutes

The Australian Museum science festival has started with a Big Bang this week.

Thousands of students and families have descended on the Australian Museum in Sydney to get involved in the Australian Museum Science Festival. This celebration of science is an annual event of hands-on workshops, science stage shows, exhibition stalls, roving scientists, live animals and more. The Australian Museum Science Festival is the premier event of National Science Week and I look forward to it every year.

Living the dream
Karen Player and Melissa Murray preparing Centrosaurus fossils. These two staff members have had a life long passion for Geoscience and are now living the dream, being paid to prepare dinosaur fossil material from Canada. Image: Australian Museum
© Australian Museum

We kicked off the celebration of science by participating in the SciFest Video Conferencing Festival for students who can't make it to Sydney. This is a great opportunity to reach schools in regional and remote NSW. So far we have finished 8 video conferencing sessions, 3 days of onsite events for primary school students, an under 7's day and the Family Fun day. Next week we will continue with 3 days of activities for high school students.

With many students struggling with science and maths this event is even more important as a way of inspiring the next generation of scientists and science communicators.

My passion for science began at an early age when I would explore my backyard for rocks. I would collect and categorise them in shape and size. This simple act of making a collection is common to many children and was the spark that started me on my science journey.

What sparked your imagination and started your journey?