UNE > News and Events > Browse by article > Science adventure: from the swamp to the stars

Next Good eggs go all the way in hair-raising fundraiser October 18, 2004  

Previous Waste managers discuss alternative technologies October 14, 2004 

Science adventure: from the swamp to the stars

October 15, 2004

More than 250 high-school students from the New England region will visit the University of New England next week for a scientific adventure that will take them from an actual swamp on the University’s campus to the farthest reaches of space.

During the day-long adventure they will build a freezer alarm, experiment with hens’ eggs and wool fibres, meet bush mammals and insects face-to-face, look at flies’ eyes through an electron microscope, and learn how fish swim upstream.

Called “Science in the Bush”, the day of activities will take students in Years 7-10 into a real, cutting-edge research environment at UNE, and give them an insight into the vitality of science and the variety of scientific careers. UNE’s Dr Chris Fellows, the coordinator of the day, said it was vital for school students in country regions to have opportunities, like their city counterparts, to experience “science as it really is practised”.

This, the second annual “Science in the Bush”, will be on Wednesday 20 October. Contributors to the program, hosted by UNE, will include UNE itself, The University of Technology, Sydney, CSIRO, and the Department of Primary Industries, Tamworth. Sponsors include UNE, OzIntell and Konica.

The students will come from 10 schools in Armidale, Inverell, Walcha and Bingara.

At the swamp, they will find out why it is good for a swamp to smell, why swamp slime is a great source of food for animals, what kind of animals live in and visit swamps, and what we can do to conserve swamps in our local areas. Entering the Starlab Planetarium (brought to UNE by Clue Communications, Sydney), they will go on a guided tour of the stars. Back on earth, they will have the opportunity to fossick for sapphires (and keep the loot!), learning at the same time about the formation of sapphires as a result of natural earth processes.

Simon Walsh, from the University of Technology, Sydney, will talk to the students about careers in science, focusing particularly on forensic science as just one example of the fascinating career paths open to science graduates. He will describe how forensic scientists go about analysing evidence from the scene of a crime.

Media contact: Dr Chris Fellows, School of Biological, Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, UNE (02) 6773 2470 or Jim Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE (02) 6773 3049.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at October 15, 2004 03:13 PM