Activities & Events
Come on campus for a half-day of science activities and experience all that the University of Sydney Science Faculty has to offer - friendly and inspiring staff, outstanding facilities and breathtaking grounds!
Activities are available in the following areas:
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Mathematics
- Physics
- Geosciences
- Agriculture
- Architecture, Design and Planning
- Engineering
- Information technology
- Museum activities
BIOLOGY (Years 7-9)
Science Alliance offers school groups the opportunity to visit the School of Biological Sciences at our Camperdown campus and participate in hands on laboratory based activities. The focus is on activities that are not able to be done at school.
Alternatively the School of Biological Sciences may be able to send a speaker to visit your school. The School is happy to speak to groups of teachers, careers advisors and parents, as well as students.
One of our activities includes:
Monsters Beneath Our Feet: the mysterious, spineless world of invertebrates workshop
(Years 7 - 9)
Come face-to-face with mini monsters living in your backyard. Go on an exploration of the exciting world of terrestrial and aquatic invertebrate life that is only made possible thanks to high resolution microscopes and special lighting equipment. Activities include holding some of Australia’s largest invertebrates, seeing unusual properties of scorpions, investigating the magic of insect flight and getting to know the creepy-crawlies that share our homes. This workshop aims to develop students’ skills in animal handling, observation and data recording, as well as reinvigorating their excitement for biology.
Duration: 1.5 hours
Minimum: 10 students
Maximum: 30 students
Cost: $9/student (GST free)
Contact: Biological Sciences Communicator
Phone: (02) 9351 4543
Mobile: 0434 070 338
Email:
CHEMISTRY (Years 7-12)*
Workshops and demonstrations
Chemistry has a mix of hands-on or workshop activities that are both fun and educational. Students will perform a number of experiments using liquid nitrogen, and observe exciting demonstrations by our highly qualified staff.
Duration: 1 hour
Minimum: 30 students
Maximum: 60 students per workshop; 300 students per demonstrations
Cost: $9/student (GST free) - workshop; $6/student (GST free) - demonstration
Contact: Dr Jeanette Hurst
Phone: (02) 9351 3105
Email:
* Please note there is limited availability with these workshops due to venue restrictions.
MATHEMATICS
Mathematics and statistics is about to get much more hands-on for schools! With the addition of Dr Clio Cresswell as our Mathematics Communicator we are planning a number of exciting programs (for students as well as teachers). There will be talks and workshops and much much more.
Contact: Dr Clio Cresswell
Phone: (02) 9351 4533
Fax: (02) 9351 4534
Email:
Mathematical Enrichment and Mathematical Olympiad
The Australian Mathematical Olympiad Committee offers a variety of activities ranging from correspondence programs to residential schools, run with the assistance of academic mathematicians throughout Australia. These programs, which are presented in a carefully sequenced arrangement of enrichment activities, offer valuable tuition and resources to students. The most gifted students may be selected for more specialised training directed towards the Mathematical Olympiad.
Contact: Dr Bill Palmer
Phone: (02) 9351 3048
Fax: (02) 9351 4534
Email:
Website: www.amt.edu.au
The National Mathematics Summer School
The National Mathematics Summer School was founded in 1969 and is academically sponsored by the Australian National University and the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers Inc. It is a two-week program for 64 Year 11 high school students, proficient in mathematics, selected from every state and territory. It is presently in its 44th year of operation. During the two week school, students study three topics in higher mathematics and there are, in addition, special lectures at Mt Stromlo and the Academy of Science.
Date: 8-21 January 2012, 6-19 January 2013
Contact: Associate Professor Leon Poladian
Phone: (02) 9351 2049
Fax: (02) 9351 4534
Email:
Website: www.nmss.org.au
PHYSICS
The School of Physics can provide lecturers to speak to your classes on many current and interesting topics in Physics and Astronomy. Lecturers are happy to visit your school, or school groups are welcome to come to the School of Physics for talks or laboratory activities. Astronomy viewing nights can also be arranged.
Some of our activities include:
Full Body Physics (Years 7 - 12)
Look but don’t touch is NOT the theme of these sessions! You will get charged, cold, wet, illuminated and harnessed during 90 minutes of full body physics. In small groups you will not only see, but hear, feel and experience the important concepts of physics – lasers, electricity, magnetism, heat and cold – as you freeze air, charge your friends up to thousands of volts, and learn how blowing sucks.
Duration: 1.5 hours
Minimum: 8 students
Maximum: 50 students
Cost: $9/student (GST free)
Physics of the Stars (Years 7 - 12)
See a black hole through a radio telescope, look in detail at sunspots and solar prominences thousands of kilometres across and weigh Jupiter. This gives a chance to see real data being collected and to chat with professional astronomers from the School of Physics. Note: for junior high school students an astronomy talk will replace the Jupiter calculation session.
Duration: 1.5 hours
Minimum: 8 students
Maximum: 30 students
Cost: $9/student (GST free)
Astronomy talk (Years 10 - 12)
Spend an hour exploring the life and death of a star with a professional astronomer from the Sydney Institute for Astronomy (SiFA) at the School of Physics. Fully illustrated with spectacular images this informative talk is the perfect complement to the Astrophysics module of the HSC syllabus.
Duration: 1 hour
Minimum: 10 students
Maximum: 120 students
Cost: $9 per student / $7 per student for groups over 20
Relativity talk (Years 11 - 12)
Discover a universe where your legs get shorter and fatter when you drive fast, and travelling to Perth will make you longer. Relativity was born one hundred years ago as Einstein revolutionised the universe we thought we knew in a single year.
This course explains relativity with no equations or maths required.
Duration: 1 hour
Minimum: 10 students
Maximum: 120 students
Cost: $9 per student / $7 per student for groups over 20
For the above Physics activities, contact:
Tom Gordon
Phone: (02) 9351 3201
Email:
CAASTRO in the Classroom (Years 9 - 12)
Reach for the stars without ever leaving the classroom. Astronomers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) will be beamed into your classroom via videoconferencing to share with you the secrets of how the universe works. Be prepared to ask your own questions about anything from the solar system to galaxies to the big bang. The content is well aligned with the Cosmic Engine, Space, Astrophysics, and other courses in the NSW Stage 4-6 syllabi.
Duration: 1 hour
Cost: None
Contact: Greg Madsen
Phone: (02) 9036 5106
Fax: (02) 9036 7158
Email:
GEOSCIENCES (Year 7-12)
Students will experience geosciences first hand, finding out how our amazing earth works and how interactions between humans and the environment we live in affect the world as we know it. These hands on geosciences workshops can focus on either geology or geography, depending on your requirements.
Duration: 1hr
Minimum: 10 students
Maximum: 30 students
Cost: $9 per student (GST free)
AGRICULTURE
Agriculture is much more than fields and tractors! The Faculty is involved in a range of fascinating topics spanning science and economic disciplines. Students have the opportunity to expand their understanding of today’s big issues such as carbon management, food security and use of the world’s natural resources.
The Faculty provides a range of fun hands-on workshops and talks related to general science, environmental science and agricultural science including plant biology, soil science and food chemistry. For those interested in business and economics, the Faculty offers activities exploring agricultural and resource economics.
We can arrange for a staff member to visit your school, or for the University experience, schools can visit us on campus. Workshops can be tailored for primary or high school students. Additional opportunities include a laboratory tour and introduction to our research.
Is Economics all about Money?
Economists study the allocation of scarce resources. Whilst economists do study how people choose to earn and spend their money, they also study how people interact with each other in managing scarce resources and the environment. Money is important but so too are trust, fairness, and cooperative behaviour. This activity uses interactive games to explore economic behaviour in markets and environmental dilemmas.
Plant Science
Find out why plants are the true powerhouses of the world. Students explore the diversity of plants and learn about the recent advances in plant biotechnology. You will have the opportunity to perform hands-on experiments including DNA extraction and CO2 measurement.
The Chocolate Workshop
We all love chocolate, but do we really know where it comes from? This delicious food science workshop takes students on a sensory exploration of cocoa! Depending on the audience, the workshop can be adjusted to include elements of biology, economics, social sciences and environmental science.
Catch the Robber!
Trace the steps of the thief using forensic soil techniques. This exciting, interactive workshop will show students how to make their own pH test kit and then use it to identify the culprit and solve the crime!
Duration: All workshops are 45 minutes
Minimum: 10 students
Maximum: 30 students
Cost: $7/student (GST free)
For all Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources activities:
Contact: Jeremy Platt
Phone: (02) 8627 1093
Email:
Websitel: sydney.edu.au/agriculture/outreach/
ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN & PLANNING
For schools in the Sydney metropolitan area, we can arrange for staff and senior undergraduate architecture and design computing students to visit your school and talk about careers, studying design at the University of Sydney and other topics of interest to your students. A two-day Interaction Design workshop is run during the winter school holidays for HSC students. The graduate exhibitions (first week of December) showcase the talents of all our graduating students from the architecture and design computing programs. We invite school groups to attend this exhibition.
Contact: Jonathan Hulme
Phone: (02) 9351 2686
Fax: (02) 9351 5665
Email:
ENGINEERING & I.T.
Engineering is not just about building bridges and information technology is not just about computing. The Faculty of Engineering and IT offers studies in cutting-edge areas like robotics, steel structures, space, power, energy, sustainability, high-performance computing, tissue engineering and much more.
The faculty conducts a number of activities for school students throughout the year. We can organise campus visits, tailored hands-on workshops and tours of our world-class laboratories and facilities.
We can also arrange for our senior students to visit your school, run activities with students, talk about career options and offer some insight into studying engineering or it.
Contact: Gabrielle Smith
Phone: (02) 9114 1487
Fax: (02) 9351 4654
Email:
National Computer Science School 2013
The National Computer Science School brings together talented young people for an intensive week of computer programming, web design and related activities at the School of IT (Faculty of Engineering), University of Sydney. NCSS is a residential school and open to all students in Australia in their penultimate high school year.
NO PROGRAMMING EXPERIENCE IS REQUIRED.
Dates: 5-14 January 2013
NCSS Challenge 2012
The NCSS Challenge is a five week programming competition designed to educate participants about computer science. The Challenge involves participants solving interesting but simplified computational tasks. Unlike existing competitions, the Challenge is designed to cater for both beginners and advanced students. The Challenge will be particularly valuable for science students, mathematics students and computing studies students.
NO PROGRAMMING EXPERIENCE IS REQUIRED. We teach you how to program as you go along.
Dates: 30 April – 4 June 2012
Girls’ Programming Network 2012
The Girls’ Programming Network (GPN) is a programming club for high school girls interested in learning and/or improving their computing skills.
GPN is a unique opportunity to meet other females with similar interests, find a mentor and learn about university life from female university students. The program has been developed and run by female IT students - under the guidance of academics at the University of Sydney.
Dates: Weekly meetings one afternoon a week after school.
For all IT activities contact:
NCSS Co-ordinator
Phone: (02) 9351 3423
Fax: (02) 9351 3838
Email:
Website: www.ncss.edu.au
MUSEUM ACTIVITIES
NICHOLSON MUSEUM
The Nicholson Museum is the largest antiquities museum in Australia with a collection of objects from Egypt, the Middle East, Greece, Italy and Europe. The museum is open to the public, in addition to functioning as a teaching collection for the Department of Archaeology. The museum has a full-time conservator who works with the objects and alongside archaeology students who are studying ancient materials, technologies and manufacturing processes.
Visits to the Nicholson Museum which focus on science in archaeology and involve a tour of the conservation laboratory can be organised.
Contact: Dr Craig Barker
Phone: (02) 9036 5409 (enquiries) / (02) 9351 8746 (bookings)
Email:
Website: sydney.edu.au/museums/collections/nicholson.shtml
Cost: General Admission - free
Education program prices
Primary school:
2 hour visit - $12/student (inc GST)
3 hour visit - $14/student (inc GST)
High School:
2 hour visit - $14.50/student (inc GST)
3 hour visit - $18/student (inc GST)
SHELLSHEAR MUSEUM
The Shellshear Museum is the only museum dedicated to physical anthropology in Australia and holds collections of human skeletons, other primate skeletons, vertebrate skeletons and casts for the study of human evolution. The museum is open to school groups, in addition to functioning as a teaching collection for the Discipline of Anatomy and Histology and research collections for bona fide researchers. Research in the Museum focuses on human osteology, particularly in the areas of forensic anthropology and forensic dental anatomy, burial practices and dietary analysis of bone.
Contact: Dr Denise Donlon
Phone: (02) 9351 4529
Email:
Duration: 1.5 hours
Maximum: 20 students
Cost: $10/student (GST free)
Website: sydney.edu.au/medicine/anatomy/museums/shellshear.php
MACLEAY MUSEUM
The Macleay Museum is a museum of natural history, ethnography and the history of science. Its significant collections, based on the original donation in the 1880s by William John Macleay and later additions, are important for the purposes of historic research and teaching. The Museum offers programs for school visits which focus on various syllabus topics, including science (especially biology and scientific history), history and Aboriginal studies.
Exhibitions:
Meaning of Life: 50 Years of Biological Sciences
August 2012 – January 2013
Through 50 years of study of the living world, scholars in the School of Biological Sciences have enhanced our understanding in ecology, genetics and evolution in unforseen directions. This exhibition explores how biology has changed our thinking, and yours too.
Coral: Art Science Life
13 February 2012 – August 2012
Examining the boundaries of our concern for the coral reefs and spongy life forms that sustain life on the QLD and NSW coast, the exhibition will include new work by four contemporary artists; four of the University’s Science Faculties researchers will explain their current research on the reefs, along with the voices of Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Contact: Dr Craig Barker
Phone: (02) 9036 5409 (enquiries) / (02) 9351 8746 (bookings)
Cost:
General Admission - free
Primary school:
2 hour visit - $12/student (inc GST)
3 hour visit - $14/student (inc GST)
High School:
2 hour visit - $14.50/student (inc GST)
3 hour visit - $18/student (inc GST)
Website: sydney.edu.au/museums/collections/macleay.shtml