Victorian Science Week: Ideas for schools

The Science Teachers' Association of Victoria
Science Week

STAV's Science Week is a special week that celebrates science in schools and in our lives.

It is usually held in mid-May, although it may be more convenient for you to hold it at some other time of the year. Science Week aims to promote science to Australian school children and Families, and to encourage awareness of science as an exciting and fun part of modern life.


In 1997, science week has the theme Flight. This gives teachers many opportunities to plan an exciting program for their students.

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	STUDENT ACTIVITIES AND EXPERIMENTS
 The first place to look for ideas is the 1997 Science Week Resource Book. This contains many activities and experiments which have been written to fit the theme. Magic books and Science resource books are also useful as sources of ideas.

There are many different possible approaches to Science Week. Many schools plan their Science Week events for one single day. Others plan a few short activities for each day of Science Week.
You may wish to run a different flight topic for each day of Science Week. One possible list is:

Monday
  • Nature's Fliers
    • Flying animals
    • Flying insects
    • Flying plants
Tuesday
  • Air Resistance
    • Parachutes
    • Streamlining
    • Steering aircraft
Wednesday
  • Lift
    • Hot air & lighter than air balloons
    • Bernoulii's Theory
    • Aerofoils
Thursday
  • Propellers
    • Helicopters
    • Hovercraft
    • Aeroplanes
    • Jets and turbines
Friday
  • Rockets and Space Flight
    • Balloon rockets
    • Soda rockets
    • Astronomy story telling

Apart from the student experiments, there are many other activities and events that students will enjoy as part of Science Week.

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	      GUEST SPEAKERS

Students enjoy "outside" speakers who can come into the classroom and talk about their job and the importance of science in their lives. You will find that many scientists and professional people will be more than happy to spare an hour to talk to your students, and will not charge a fee. You may wish to invite parents to listen to the talk.

In most cases simply telephoning the intended speaker will get them to visit. It is important that you make it clear just what you want them to talk about, and also the level of the students so that the talk will be pitched at the right level. At our school we give the speaker two glasses as a thank you, and we get a student to present these at the end of the talk. 
	Possible guest speakers include:

STAV and other organizations run "Visiting Scientist" programs. Scientists can be booked for your Science Week. Swinburne's Travelling Science Show, or Starlab can visit your school and provide some spectacular activities. An excursion to the Zoo, Scienceworks , CSIROSEC, Junior ANZAAS or the Museum of Victoria can be a highlight of your program.

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  	Competitions
Many science competitions can be run during, and in conjunction with Science Week. A daily Quiz with an easy and a hard science question can be placed on the daily bulletin. For example "What is Borborygmi?" (A growling Stomach) or "How do bats find their food?" (By listening for echoes coming from objects). A prize may be awarded for the first correct entry drawn.

Each year STAV administers the Science Week Poster competition for ASTA. Students can produce a poster which relates to the theme "The Sounds of Science". Each entry receives a participation certificate and is eligible for a prize of a book voucher. Details and Closing Dates are contained in the Science Week Resource Handbook. Although the poster needs to be submitted prior to Science Week, the Certificates should be sent to your school so that they can be awarded to the students during Science Week

. Many other Science competitions are run at about the same time as Science Week. It may be possible to tie in with these.

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Videos

You can play Science fiction or astronomy videos at lunchtimes.

Parent Nights

At our school, we have a Science Awards night. Any student who has participated in a science competition in the past year (such as the Science Talent Search) is recognized and presented with a participation certificate. Prizes are also awarded for our own Science contests. We have a local scientist come and give a speech to the parents and children, and then present the awards. Student work is on display and families are encouraged to inspect the work during supper.

A family science night can also be organized, where the parents participate in the experiments and activities with the children. It may be that parents could be invited to the school during the daytime to participate in the Science Week activities.

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Publicity

Banners and Posters around the school can publicise the coming week. Also local newspapers will often publish spectacular photos and write an article of the week's activities.

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And Further

Evening inservices will be organized to demonstrate some simple but spectacular activities and other ideas for Science Week. Look in Contact or contact STAV for further details.

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Created : 23 November1995
Author : John Werry (werry@netspace.net.au)

Last Modified : 31/08/96