2024 is almost over and what a year it’s been! We are so grateful for all of you – teachers, parents, community members, UNE staff, and of course, the school students with whom we visit and share our love of science. Thank you for having faith in what we do, hoping to build and encourage students on their love of learning journey.

This year has seen a number of new team members join the UNE Discovery Voyager program and we are proud to have such a cohesive and diverse team, all sharing a passion for education, science and interactive experiences. Our team includes specialists in animal physiology, zoology, insect ecology, chemistry, biology, environmental science and parasitology, and we consult with UNE academics across other wide-ranging fields of science.

We have travelled far and wide visiting schools in 2024, from Boomi in the north west to Byron/Ballina on the north coast, Maules Creek, west of Moree, to Blackwater and Barrington in the south/west, and to Taree/Wingham to the south/east. By year’s end, we will have hit the tar for over 10,000km travelled and visited more than 5000 students across northern NSW. A huge achievement by all accounts.

Some of our most popular Discovery Voyager activities this year have included Creative Chemistry, Crime Scene Investigation, The Magic of Physics, Palaeontology Puzzles, and Plants, Poop and Pollinators. We’ve had an amazing time teaching students about the importance of insects, demonstrating chemical reactions, measuring the speed and heights our amazing bodies can reach, reconstructing prehistoric animals, weighing dinosaurs, using forensics to solve problems showing the remarkable properties of light and sound, and revealing the geology of the New England……. and so much more.

We also love attending regional events with our pop-up science stall, which included Minerama; Glen Innes’ annual gem and mineral festival. We helped out at the Highlands Science and Engineering Challenge here in Armidale and saw some extraordinary creations by some very creative students. We attended Closing the Gap Day in Tamworth, and took a custom Creative Ecology activity to the 2-day Inquiring Minds camp at Thalgarrah Environmental Education Centre.  We hosted two The Science Experience camps for Year 9-10 students while we transitioned to our new July date!  We attended the Armidale Light Festival with a night-time pop-up science stall with some magical plasma balls and interesting light-related science. We helped our UNE School of Education team with a Digital Play Day for our smaller audiences (preschool and kindergarten) showing robotics (our BusyBots got a real work out!) and other educational ways to play with technology.

National Science Week 2024 was a big week for Discovery. We hosted two ‘Walks of Discovery’ for community members out in our local national parks with special guests from UNE academia and National Parks & Wildlife Service. We visited the Armidale Memorial Library for some Magic of Science shows and interactive experiences, and also hosted an art competition with over 60 entries from students and community members, all with the “Adaptations: Amazing Australian Species” theme.

As the year draws to a close, the Discovery Voyager team has been out and about at the Christmas in The Mall in Armidale and we’ll be in Guyra on Friday 6 December. We enjoy showing people of all ages some magical science experiments and helping them have a little fun with science.

The entire UNE Discovery team are looking forward to more travels and school visits in 2025. We’ve been working on some new activities to bring to schools next year. Watch our newsletter for announcements on when they’ll be ready to book!

We’ll be enjoying a break over Christmas and New Year and we are all very excited to perhaps journey to your school or event in 2025 and inspire even more students! We would like to wish all our readers a very safe and happy holiday, with maybe a little science and a lot of joy.

Yours in STEAM
UNE Discovery