Citizen Science

Last month, we said goodbye to one of our long-term UNE Discovery team members. Phil Spark joined the team in the middle of 2017 and has now taken early retirement....

10 May, 2023

We are very excited to offer two new activities from Term 2 in 2023. Escape the Museum is our portable escape-room style activity which includes some challenges and puzzles that students will need to solve to find their way out of a locked museum before time runs out. Using imagination, logic and problem solving, students will work within a small group and immerse themselves in an imaginary museum. ...

24 April, 2023

UNE Discovery is most well known for visiting schools and delivering exciting, play based activities to students across northern NSW. But this is not all we do. From time to time the Discovery team also heads out to special festivals and events to bring awesome science fun to kids and adults alike! This was the case earlier this year when we attended the Minerama Fossicking, Gem and Jewellery Show in Glenn Innes, and a Close the Gap event in Tamworth....

08 April, 2023

Have you noticed a lot of dragonflies in your area lately? Are there more than usual? Well, there’s a reason for this. A story by Megan Backhouse in “The Age” late last year suggests that while these insects are always most prevalent from November to March, their recent abundance is being attributed to La Nina....

02 April, 2023

During Australian wet weather events, the news is full of images of saturated, soggy and sodden koalas and exhausted kangaroos swimming through the rising flood waters. While the diversity of Australian mammals is substantial, with approximately 380 species, most of our native mammals are small and rarely seen. Because of their tiny size, it can be difficult to remember that they, too, are affected when the skies open and gullies turn into white water rapids....

22 March, 2023

On 7th and 8th March, the Armidale Central Rotary Club together with the support of UNE’s Schools of Science & Technology and Environment and Rural Science, hosted the Highlands Science and Engineering Challenge & Discovery Days, a nationwide program run by the University of Newcastle. Students from primary and secondary schools from all across the Northern Tablelands gathered at the Armidale Ex Services Memorial Club to tackle difficult science and engineering tasks, competing for the top place....

14 March, 2023

The 11th February marks the annual International Day of Women and Girls in Science. UNESCO and UN Women implemented this day in collaboration with institutions and civil society partners that aim to promote women and girls in science....

11 February, 2023

It is always interesting looking at the night sky, seeing the Moon and some of the planets. Just after sunset it is currently possible to see Venus, Jupiter and Mars. There are a number of other interesting celestial objects in the sky right now as well. They are comets. The most notable in the news recently is “The Green Comet” which is in the direction of Mars. The name of this green comet is Comet ZTF. ...

03 February, 2023

Dung beetles play a crucial role in the burial and degradation of vertebrate dung, performing several critical ecological services that are essential for ecosystem functioning. Australia has more than 500 species of native dung beetles. Some of these species inhabit tropical and subtropical rainforest regions, and some are restricted to small pockets of rainforest above 1000m, making them very vulnerable to climate change....

02 February, 2023

Australia has over 240 species of frog, with 90 species found in NSW alone. While everyone knows what a frog is, and of course every Australian knows what a cane toad is, it’s not all that common for people to be able to tell different species of frogs apart....

31 January, 2023

Earlier this year, UNE teamed up with The Science Experience to deliver a 3-day science camp for high school students. The Science Experience is a nationally run program across 30 different universities in Australia. The goal of the program is to give high school students with a passion for science a taste of university life and exposure to the many and varied disciplines in science....

22 January, 2023

2022 has been a year of great change for UNE Discovery. After a tumultuous couple of pandemic years, 2022 was when we finally started to feel like we were getting back to normal and down to business. At the start of the year, the Discovery Voyager team was quite small and a somewhat restricted in what we could offer. However, as the year went on we were privileged to be able to grow the team with new and vibrant facilitators....

16 December, 2022

The residents of the New England region share their homes with many wonderful species of plants and animals. One that is unique to the Tablelands is the Bell's turtle (Myuchelys bellii), which may also be unique among all turtles for its unusual diet....

14 December, 2022

The residents of the New England region share their homes with many wonderful species of plants and animals. One that is unique to the Tablelands is the Bell's turtle (Myuchelys bellii), which may also be unique among all turtles for its unusual diet....

06 December, 2022

The Aussie Bird Count is an activity for all ages that involves observing and counting the birds that live near you – whether that’s in your garden, the local park, a beach, your school or even your own town centre. By taking note of the birds you’ve seen in a 20 minute period, you will help BirdLife Australia develop an understanding of local birds whilst getting to know the wildlife on your doorstep....

17 October, 2022

Help scientists to understand how birds have adapted to urban environments by getting involved in the Big City Birds citizen science project. You don’t have to live in a big city to get involved – observations can be submitted from all over Australia! ...

08 September, 2021

Armidale is in lockdown but we’re soiling our undies anyway! As we prepare for National Science Week we’re cleaning off our shovels and getting ready to dig because the time has come to Soil Your Undies! Follow along with Kieran and Oliver as they take us through how to correctly bury your undies and some of the details of this years challenge. ...

12 August, 2021

The 2021 Soil Your Undies (SYU) Challenge is off and running. UNE Discovery Voyager, in collaboration with UNE Soil Scientist Dr Oliver Knox, the UNE SMART Farms and CottonInfo, are hosting the 2021 Citizen Science project once again this year and last month we invited you to SOIL YOUR UNDIES! ...

18 July, 2021

The Soil Your Undies Challenge is back again in 2021 and bigger than ever! This year we want to send out 300 undies to be soiled all across Australia. Register your class now to be a part of this Australia wide citizen science project and test your soil health. Registrations close July 23rd unless we run out of undies first....

02 July, 2021

Back in March this year, the team from Thalgarrah Environmental Education Centre visited Martins Gully Public School in Armidale to check out the school’s use of a bushy strip of land area within the school grounds that had previously been out-of-bounds for the students. After staff attended a Nature Play Conference at Thalgarrah in 2018, they were eager to make use of the area and let the students PLAY! ...

29 April, 2021

The 2020 Soil Your Undies challenge was a huge success, with over 200 pairs of undies being buried around Australia. In case you missed the excitement last year, the Soil Your Undies Challenge is a collaboration between Dr Oliver Knox, CottonInfo, UNE SMART Farms and UNE Discovery with the goal to increase awareness and understanding of soil health. To do this, participants of the challenge buried a pair of cotton undies for 8 weeks to see how much they broke down. Cotton is made of type of sugar called cellulose which the decomposers living in soil love to eat, so by analysing how much the undies broke down soil scientists like Oliver are able to see how healthy the soil is! Undies were excavated in December and sent back to UNE for analysis, but what exactly do we do with all these soiled undies?...

12 February, 2021

Do you want to do more for our Great Barrier Reef but need a way to contribute from home? Check out this amazing citizen science project and be involved for the chance to win a GoPro!...

18 December, 2020

If you are situated anywhere in NSW right now, or perhaps any place where Summer has arrived, you would be familiar with the magnificent chorus of cicadas that are filling the summer airwaves. Some days, I can’t stand in my backyard for too long as the sound can be quite deafening. I have found at least four species of cicadas at our place, and have been keeping my eyes peeled for more....

15 December, 2020

What a bumper cicada season we've had! The loud calls of the males fill the air with the distinctive sounds of summer. But despite their unmistakable and familiar calling, not a lot is known about the ecological preferences and requirements that cicadas need to survive....

11 December, 2020

Are you a keen orchid enthusiast or bush-walker? Then Wild Orchid Watch (WOW) is the citizen science project for you! WOW is a project designed to collect, record and share scientific information about Australian native orchids....

04 December, 2020

Do you love Galaxies that are far, far away? If your answer is a big YES, then the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research needs your help!...

27 November, 2020

Wherever you are in Australia, if you have found some poor creatures caught up, reporting the instance can be helpful in minimising the suffering of the creature, maximising the chance of a successful rescue and minimising the risk to other creatures....

20 November, 2020

Have you had a chance to slow down, sit quietly and observe the living things around you - from the weeds growing through the concrete, to the ants working busily beneath you? If so, the Urban Field Naturalist Project would love to hear about your discoveries....

13 November, 2020

Join Australia's original pollinator citizen science project from 8-15 of November and help scientists from UNE count wild pollinators in your local environment and build a database on wild pollinator activity....

06 November, 2020

The Great Inland Glossy Count is calling for citizen scientists and bird enthusiasts to become cockatoo counters! Volunteers are needed to survey glossy black cockatoo populations at three key sites around inland NSW....

30 October, 2020

You may have seen a creatively named challenge making its way through the ether lately. So, what’s it all about? The 2020 Soil Your Undies Challenge is a collaboration between Dr Oliver Knox, CottonInfo, UNE SMART Farms and UNE Discovery. The original concept of ‘Soil Your Undies’ is a fun and engaging citizen science project, conceived and established by the University of New England (UNE)’s Dr Oliver Knox and CottonInfo. It aims to increase awareness and understanding of soil health, exploring soil health concepts in a novel and fun way, and encouraging participants to share their experiences....

18 October, 2020

There’s all this talk about our Soil Your Undies Challenge being a citizen science project, but how on earth can soiling undies be contributing valuable data to research? ...

18 September, 2020

How are we going to be able to predict the effect of Climate Change on Australia? When making any reliable predictions you need as much information as possible. Here's a chance for you to be involved in making those predictions possible....

11 September, 2020

If you get excited by spotting different birds in your garden, here’s a great program to get involved in....

14 August, 2020

The Brush-turkeys: Birds in Suburbia project aims to survey the distribution and abundance of Brush-turkeys, understand how they behave in different environments, and educate the community on the natural history and biology of this unique native species....

31 July, 2020

Your observations can help in monitoring the health of trees and ecosystems. Knowing where and when trees have died can help scientists to work out causes of death, those trees which are particularly vulnerable, and ways to protect them. ...

24 July, 2020

Become a ‘Wildlife Spotter’ citizen scientist and assist researchers by looking for animals in wilderness photos taken by automated cameras around Australia. Anyone can join and you can do it all online!!...

17 July, 2020

Want to discover more about clouds and contribute valuable data to scientific research? Check this out!...

10 July, 2020

Butterflies Australia is a citizen science project that launched in October 2019 to ask people to submit photos of butterflies from all over Australia....

03 July, 2020

The Fairywren Project is looking for citizen scientist partners across Australia to help collect observations of fairywrens and their various plumages (feathers)....

26 June, 2020

Have you spotted koalas or emus in the Clarence Valley? This citizen science project is for you!...

19 June, 2020

Our friends over at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory have an awesome citizen science project you can be involved in!...

29 May, 2020

Over 46,000,000 acres burnt in the 2019-2020 bushfire season in eastern Australia, including South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. Understanding how the environment recovers from this unprecedented fire season is an important scientific goal....

25 May, 2020

Want to help accelerate Alzheimer’s Research by playing an online game? Check this out!...

08 May, 2020

We’re voyaging over to our friends at the Australian Citizen Science Association (ACSA) to explore April as Global CitSciMonth!...

20 April, 2020

Follow along with Andréa as she undertakes the Wild Pollinator Count in her backyard, and shows just how easy it is for you to do the same!...

15 April, 2020

You can join Australia's original pollinator citizen science project between 12-19 of April to help count wild pollinators in your local environment and help build the database on wild pollinator activity....

11 April, 2020

JOIN Australia's original pollinator citizen science project between 12-19 of April to help Dr Manu Saunders from UNE count wild pollinators in your local environment and help build a database on wild pollinator activity....

06 April, 2020

Today we’re voyaging over to our friends at the University of South Australia with another very cool national citizen science project – Mozzie Monitors!...

02 April, 2020

Have you heard some interesting sounds coming from your backyard that you think might be a frog? Today we’re voyaging over to our friends at the Australian Museum with a very cool national citizen science project - FrogID. Citizen science projects are activities through which volunteers and scientists work together to answer real-world questions and gather data. Using nothing but a smartphone, you can record frog calls around you that help scientists track Cane Toads and identify where frogs are thriving and where they aren’t!...

26 March, 2020
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