National Science Week

National Science Week

14 - 22 August 2021

School theme - Food: Different by Design

Send us an email to let us know what you have planned at your school this year!

This theme will honour the United Nations International Year of Fruits and Vegetables and the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development. Food: Different by Design will cover a broad range of areas in food production and sustainable agriculture, enabling students to explore topics such as biosecurity, food technology and laboratory-developed foods. Scientific development will be at the core to the theme, with other hands-on projects for students to explore.

For National Science Week each year, The Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA) produces a teacher resource book to help support and assist teachers in providing engaging science activities for their students. The book is based, each year, on the National Science Week school theme chosen for that year and is always packed with information, classroom activities, experiments, diagrams, photographs and websites. Since 2011, ASTA has provided the teacher resource books as web-based digital books. Titles include: React to Chemistry, Energy Evolution, A Century of Australian Science and Food for our future: Science feeding the world. These are available free of charge from the National Science Week Books and Resources page.

Grants of up to $500 will be awarded to help support National Science Week activities in schools. The annual grant round is for all schools (pre-schools to senior secondary) to help them conduct a STEM related activity in Science Week. No dates for the applications have been announced as yet, but usually open in mid February and close in early April. Please keep an eye on the National Science Week website and ASTA website. 

The 2021 Resource Book of Ideas for National Science Week will offer teachers and students the opportunity to investigate a diverse range of topics about food and agriculture within a sustainability framework. This will be made available soon.

There are a number of free resources available from the National Science Week website including:

• Early Childhood Activities booklet
• Science Week character colouring sheets
• Science Week Library Activities booklet

For more information about National Science Week and to find upcoming events visit the website.

If you have any questions about National Science Week, please contact Priscilla Martinus (S.A. Rep. for schools for National Science Week) at fullerst@adam.com.au.

To find out what SA schools got up to for National Science Week in 2020 visit the SASTA Blog.