culture.gov.au
Connecting you with Australian culture online
Top 10 Stories
Australian weather and the seasons The Australian Gold Rush European discovery and the colonisation of Australia Convicts and the British colonies in Australia Great Barrier Reef Australian Indigenous cultural heritage Sydney Opera House Modern Australian fashion Australian food and drink Sydney Harbour BridgeNational Science Week
National Science Week is Australia's major annual science extravaganza. National Science Week 2008 is scheduled for August 16 to 24, and yes, that's more than one week. With so much happening - broadcasts and events generally continue for about a month around the official dates - we may as well start calling it National Science Month! Science Week provides a good opportunity to consider Australian scientists' contributions to the world of knowledge and point to some Internet resources of interest.
Science Week, and the activities that coincide with it, provides opportunities to draw attention to Australian science successes, to encourage interest in science pursuits and to get younger people fascinated by the world in which we live. Which is what scientific exploration is all about - asking questions about our world and ourselves. One of the events occurring in National Science Week is Science in the City, a celebration of the contributions of science to society. As part of National Science Week, the program features over 300 activities in the heart of the City of Sydney.
Australia has an exciting history of scientific achievement. Visit the links below to find out about Australian scientists and about issues in science.
National Science Week is a partnership between the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), ASF Limited, the Australian Science Teachers Association, and the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. Together with coordination committees in each State and Territory, these bodies work year round to promote science and prepare for the week.
Science news stories courtesy of ABC Science Online.
[Click on any headline for the full story].
Major science awards
The Eureka Prizes are Australia's most important science awards. The 21 prizes are administered by the Australian Museum and prize sponsors include the Australian Skeptics, the University of New South Wales, Environment Australia, the Department of Education, Science and Training, and New Holland Publishers Australia.
The prizes reward a variety of work which promotes science and scientific approaches to thinking - the Australian Skeptics Eureka Prize is for critical thinking and aims to encourage younger scientists to explore and investigate beliefs which have little or no scientific support. Have a look at the winners of the 2006 Eureka Prizes.
Science Week events
The week is jam-packed with science related events including workshops, theatrical presentations, open days, lectures, debates and displays.
The Science Week website provides information about science related events.
The Australian Museum has an extensive annual program of Science Week events listed at their website.
In Canberra the Australian Science Festival takes place, and back at the ABC's "The Lab" find the mini-site Backyard Birdwatch as well as the News In Science page. (Our cool little java script science news headlines at the top of this page link to the News in Science page).
Science resources on CD or video
Investigating Lake Iluka
This CD-ROM is targeted at the high school level being applicable to biology and geography as well as ecology studies. Students can investigate the various ecosystems of the lake, make physical, chemical and biological measurements, collect information about individual animal and plant species and view footage of news reports and expert and local views on a variety of issues.
Exploring the Nardoo
Students can explore the ecology of this imaginary environment through four physical regions and across four time zones using a captivating and comprehensive set of multimedia resources on this CD-ROM. Suitable for Years 7 to 12.
Video histories of Australian scientists
A series of videos in which Australian scientists talk about their work and careers. It includes interviews with Sir Otto Frankel, Sir Gustav Nossel and Sir Mark Oliphant.
Related Culture and Recreation Portal Stories
Australian science organisations
- Australian Academy of Science
- CSIRO - Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
- Questacon
- Australian National Botanical Gardens
- Listing of Australian science sites
Australian science spots online
- Australian Institute of Marine Science ProjectNet
- Cyberscience at CSIRO
- Winners of 2006 Eureka Prizes
- Primary Investigations: a science program for primary schools
- The Lab
- National Science Week
Australian scientists
- Bright Sparcs
- Geoffrey Badger
- Peter Bishop
- William Bragg: Nobel Prize for Physics
- John Cornthorp: Nobel Prize for Chemistry
- Peter Doherty: Nobel Prize for Medicine
- John Eccles: Nobel Prize for Medicine
- Howard Florey: Nobel Prize for Medicine
- John Gould
- Elizabeth Kenny
- Frank Macfarlane Burnet: Nobel Prize for Medicine
- Douglas Mawson
- Dr Karl Kruszelnicki
Search Australian science websites:
Search more than 110 Australian science websites.
Search over 3,500 Australian websites for information about:
Last updated: 17th January 2008
The Portal welcomes contributions and feedback from readers about Australian Stories. To provide feedback on this article, please email the Stories Editor, StoriesEditor at culture dot gov dot au.
If you can see this message, you are probably not seeing this site in the way it was designed. This site uses cascading style sheets (CSS2) to control the way in which elements are displayed on the page.
You will still be able to access everything in this site, but we do recommend you upgrade your browser to a more recent, standards compliant, browser.