National Science Week was held from 9-17 August 2025 with the UNE Discovery team hosting a number of inclusive community events.  We started the celebration with Science @ the Markets on Sunday 10 August where we joined the Armidale Farmers’ Markets crew with a pop-up science stall and our Imagination Playground (big blue blocks).  Due to the soggy ground of Curtis Park, the event was moved up into the Beardy St Mall which was a lovely change.

Credit: Sarah Gasparre, Armidale Farmers Market)

We had a couple of school visits during the week where we facilitated some of our Discovery Voyager activities. We also held a “Discovery Walk + Nature Spotlighting” event at Gara Gorge/Blue Hole in the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park, one of our very close NPs near Armidale.

During the walk, our invited experts (thanks Dr Steve Debus, Dr Carolyn Sonter, Dr Geoff Hughes, all from UNE, and Elsie Baker from NPWS) enthralled our guests with observations and fun facts about things they could see along the track.  There were some birds, including tiny thornbills hunting insects, white throated tree-creepers and colourful rosellas, along with swamp wallabies and some plants flowering for spring spotted on the trail.  We also provided an activity sheet for a brief lesson in botany for attendees to see which botanical species they could find. With a BBQ sausage sizzle in between walks, we loved chatting with visitors who were thoroughly enjoying the evening!  After dinner we joined Dr Geoff for spotlighting on the track.  A couple of brushtail possums were the highlight and the children enjoyed wandering out in the dark under torchlight. Some great feedback from everyone – both attendees and our invited guests.  Thanks for joining us!

We held our last event, Science @ Central, on Sunday 16 Aug, which was another exciting pop-up science stall where we had specimens and hands-on science activities as well as a ‘magic’ show every hour.  It was a huge hit and we had over 300 people visit our stall.  We hope you visited and enjoyed a little magic of science!