“Aha!” moments – something we see all too often in the facilitation of Discovery activities. Students’ faces reacting with such creative insight, it often produces a whole-body response, a sudden jolt as the lightbulb switches on. “Ohhhhh yeahhh!” the say, and wow is it rewarding...
I joined the UNE Discovery Voyager team earlier this year and I am loving my work as a science communicator. I am the facilitator on Science of Soils, Plants Poop and Pollinators, Smart Farming and I also help out with Creative Chemistry. This week we...
This year I’ve been so excited to don a lab coat and help with Voyager’s newly rejigged Creative Chemistry activity. One of the opening questions we ask the primary students is, “What did you have for breakfast?” This leads to the lightbulb moment that EVERYTHING...
In this day and age it seems to be quite rare to find people who are employed to do what they are passionate about and also to be paid to do it. For me, I feel blessed to be one of those fortunate few who...
Being a chicken lover, a visit to the poultry pavilion was on my “to do” list for the Easter Show. So on one of my free afternoons, I grabbed some lemon pancakes for lunch, and started wandering through the Poultry pavilion. I came to a...
Natural history museums are some of the most amazing institutions on Earth. They are treasure troves of knowledge housing specimens collected over many decades, or even centuries! I find myself in the very lucky situation where I manage the UNE Natural History Museum (NHM) in...
Let’s play a word association game. Ready…..What is the first word or emotion that comes to you when I say “insect”? What did you think of? Did you feel a sense of wonder, fascination or curiosity? Or did you feel a bit icky, or maybe...
In the Discovery program, play-based learning is one of the tenets that we hope to bring to all schools and throughout all our activities, but by no means does it stop when we hop in that truck and make our way back to base at...
The wheels of the Voyager truck have been covering a lot of miles this year, with a full calendar of travel and discovery in places near and far, large and small, quirky and familiar. Our scientists and educators love inspiring science learning through play while...
Barely two weeks ago, the UNE Discovery Voyager team stepped aboard our new, specially kitted-out truck! This 4.5 tonne Izuzu Pantech vehicle will be helping us bring our gear - and our enthusiasm for science and creative learning - to schools all over Northeast NSW....
