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RESOURCES

Our members have recommended the following sites for teachers, adults and children.
These sites are not run by the Hub but contain useful information to further explore STEM.

Resources from Past Events are also shown below including recorded presentations from National Science Week.

www.statstuneup.com.au

Stats Tune Up includes 13 animated 4-minute videos with straight forward explanations and examples of some of the fundamental statistical concepts and methods … plus support resources..

For children, teachers, higher education students, professionals and the broader community!

For Children and Teachers

National Schools Poster Competition 

Designed to engage teams of students in investigations for prizes, associated free resources include:

An e-textbook available ‘Business Statistics in Australia: Methods and Applications’ (particularly useful for teachers) is also available for $30 via the site (along with sample chapter to consider pre-purchase) – particularly valuable considering ACARA’s new Mathematics Curriculum…and for developing skills for analysing DATA!

National Statistics Poster Competition – Community 

Designed to engage teams of families, friends, colleagues and any members of the community in investigations for prizes, associated free resources include:

An e-textbook available ‘Business Statistics in Australia: Methods and Applications’ (particularly useful for teachers) is also available for $30 via the site (along with sample chapter to consider pre-purchase) – particularly valuable considering ACARA’s new Mathematics Curriculum … and for developing skills for analysing DATA!  Resources accessible via  www.ssapostercomp.info .

Nova – Science for Curious Minds

Science is important to everyone—not just those who study it. It helps us make sound decisions for our health, our environment and our life. Every single day. There’s so much to be curious about, but often it’s hard to find answers that are both trustworthy and interesting.

STREAM

STREAM is a collaborative space of researchers and practitioners at the University of Newcastle, as well as community advisors, dedicated to engaging with our community to tackle the big issues facing the world today.

STREAM brings together expertise in science, creativity and education to communicate complex issues through the use of technological and creative advances developed. This is done through public exhibitions, workshops, seminars, talks and roundtable discussions.

https://streamcommunity.com.au/

Careers with STEM Job Kits   

The Careers with STEM Job Kits are free downloadable 8-page e-mags which offer a complete introduction to individual STEM careers. Discover what a specific STEM job is all about, meet real people working in that job and find out what you can do right now to set your career on the right path.

Science.org – Science by Doing

an online secondary school program presenting science in an engaging, guided inquiry-based approach to lift student interest and understanding. It is free to all Australian students and teachers and comprehensively covers the Australian Curriculum for high school Science Years 7-10

Science.org – Science Booklets

these booklets aim to contribute to the public understanding of the state of science, to improve understanding and address confusion created by contradictory information on big issues.

CSIRO – Education

our programs aim to inspire the pursuit of further STEM education among students and the community, to equip the emerging workforce with tomorrow’s skill sets, and to strengthen collaboration between industry and classrooms across Australia.

Careers with STEM magazines

STEM jobs are growing almost twice as fast as other jobs!  Careers with STEM has just launched five new Job Kits. Brought to you by QUT, they are free downloadable 8-page e-mags which offer a complete introduction to individual STEM careers. Discover what a specific STEM job is all about, meet real people working in that job and find out what you can do right now to set your career on the right path.

CSIRO – Double Helix

Australia’s leading science magazine for a youth audience packed with science news, features, experiments, giveaways and lots more.

STEM Women

Discover the diversity of women with science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills across Australia.

NASA – Spaceplace

Explore Earth and Space

For Adults and News

Resources from Past Events

Hunter Science Festival 2023

Hunter Science Festival 2023

The Hunter Science Festival is back for its always-popular and jam-packed day of STEM activity on Sunday 20 August 10am to 2pm at Newcastle Museum. This year’s Festival theme, Innovation – Powering Future Industries, will include hands-on interactive learning experiences, showcasing local technology and scientific research happening across the Hunter.

Highlights this year include:

  • Make and race your own solar powered car with the team from Hunter Valley Electric Vehicles
  • Become a poo on the giant inflatable Poo Palace from Hunter Medical Research Institute, and learn all about your digestion with their gastrointestinal researchers the Grand Poobahs (free, but must book here [sold out])
  • Get hands-on with the Aldrin Moon to Mars Experience, including a science show and STEM pocket rocket activity. (free, but bookings required [sold out] Show and activity 50 minutes)
  • Plant a native plant to take home with City of Newcastle’s Environment and Natural Areas Teams
  • Chill out at the Newcastle Libraries science storytime zone and borrow one of their cool tech kits
  • Climb aboard a City of Newcastle garbage truck, chat to the driver and visit the Waste Education tent
  • …and more to come.

An NBN News report on the festival is now available here.

My Science Odyssey: Planet Futures – lions, leopards and the new future

What is the life journey that leads to a life of science and innovation, to rewilding lions and wolves, and to becoming a futurist?

Join us for this FREE online seminar where we will discover what has led to a life-long-love of science for our two guest presenters.

This seminar was rescheduled due to technical difficulties on the original date.

Bios

Dr Gary Ellem

“Scientist, analyst and entrepreneur – I spend my time at the interface between technology, business and policy innovation. I’m especially interested in new technologies/business models that improve sustainability and our capacity to work together to make the world a better place.”

Gary is a sustainability futurist working mainly in the areas of transport, energy and regional innovation. He has a penchant for identifying system scale opportunities which combine technology, business and regulatory innovation.

He received his PhD in Biophysics from the University of Newcastle (Australia) and followed on to lecture in Biology, Ecology and Sustainability Strategy. He has worked in industry as a Senior Scientist and Strategic Analyst in the cleantech innovation space and has worked on projects such as the ‘Blueprint for a Low Carbon Hunter Valley’. Gary works with companies to identify technology and business pathways to new cleantech products and services. Dr Gary Ellem has published peer reviewed papers in the fields of biofuels, electrified transport and global fossil fuel resources. He has IP in the fields of wireless signal communications, the thermal processing of Biomass and micro algae photobioreactor design.

Professor Matt Hayward

Matt Hayward is a Professor of Conservation Science at the University of Newcastle.

Matt conducted a PhD on the conservation ecology of the vulnerable quokka – a small wallaby that the introduced red fox loves to kill – in the Western Australian jarrah forest.

He then conducted two post docs in South Africa; the first on bushmeat hunting in the coastal forests of the Transkei with the Walter Sisulu University, and the second at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University to study the reintroduction of lions, spotted hyaenas and a leopard to Addo Elephant National Park.

After this, Matt undertook a Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Polish Academy of Science’s Mammal Research Institute in Białowieża Primeval Forest where he studied bison ecology and predator-prey interactions with wolves and bears in Poland.

Matt then moved back to Australia to work as the Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s regional ecologist on reintroduction, ecosystem services, feral eradication/control and fire management.

Matt took up a lectureship at Bangor University in beautiful North Wales where his research teams worked on reintroducing red squirrels; ascertaining the impact of pine marten on squirrels; the context dependence of humans on wolf ecology; spatial ecology of peccaries and elephants; invasive snakes; and the impact of neonicotinoids on fossorial mammals.

Matt has researched these conservation issues in Australia, Africa and Europe on marsupials, rodents, reptiles, invertebrates, ungulates and large predators.

The presentation is now available here.

My Science Odyssey: Putting it on Paper

What is the life journey that leads to publishing a book on exotic animals, farming and climate change, or on climate grief?

Successful authors and UON graduates, Sami Bayly (An encyclopedia of Ugly Animals); Dr Jonica Newby (Beyond Climate Grief) and Dr Patrice Newell (Who’s Minding the Farm?: In This Climate Emergency) will inspire with their steadfast journeys to publication.

The presentation is now available here.

My Science Odyssey: Bee Buzziness

Join us as three experts share their career journey & what drove them to make a beeline to a world that explores the buzziness of bees

UON graduate Dani Lloyd-Prichard, will discuss the importance of bees to sustainability on Earth, and the science of bees and beekeeping recent UON graduate Tara Berthold will recount her science odyssey through Borneo, to work in Kenya where Bee Fences are used to protect crops from raiding elephants through to outback Australia. Dr Emily Grace began her research in plants and has recently directed research at the highly successful Flow Hive company which has developed world wide recognition for its revolutionary self-tapping bee hive.

The presentation is now available here.

Stepping into Science

FASCINATING SCI ODYSSEYS : Three personal journeys to a life of science: human infertility, environmental engineering and flood awareness.

YOU CAN START YOUR LEARNING JOURNEY TO A LIFE OF SCIENCE AT ANY AGE: Three courageous Novocastrians show the way: Kiara Harrison will take us into her Honours research into human infertility; Harry Callen will describe the journey from lectures into the fieldwork of environmental engineering and Willow Forsythe will let us know what it is like to undertake a PhD in flood mitigation awareness.

The presentation is now available here.

Fungi Fanatics

Todd Elliott with a netted stinkhorn, Phallus multicolor, found in the jungles of Thailand (Photo © Todd Elliott)

Exciting life journeys of those who are making a career of science.
Todd F. Elliott is a naturalist, award winning photographer, author, and Biologist. He is currently doing graduate research at the University of New England, where he is researching the ecological implications of vertebrate dispersal of fungi. His past research projects have taken him to six continents to work with a variety of organisms; his collaborations and publications from this research include the naming of more than 100 fungal species and 5 genera.
www.toddelliott.weebly.com Google Scholar | Instagram | ResearchGate | LinkedIn | Twitter Email:toddfelliott@gmail.com

Heidi Prichard is an environmental scientist in disguise as a high school teacher. She is also a musician, photographer and all-round creative, with a keen interest in fungi. Heidi has been lucky enough to work with world-renowned mycologists and scientists on a variety of projects including research on fungi, frogs, mine site rehabilitation in Borneo, threatened species conservation and coral reef rehabilitation in Vanuatu. Currently, she is on a mission to educate the youth of Australia about sustainability, climate change and the environment.

Dr Maree Elliott is a Natural history Illustrator and a Field mycologist. The inspiration for her art practice comes from the extraordinary shapes and colours of fungi and their relationship with other organisms within the environment. Maree curates the fungi collection at the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens Heatherbrae and takes community and university groups each year in May to see the glow in the dark fungus that grows within the gardens While looking for truffles with a world- renowned truffle expert she uncovered a rare and endangered underground orchid that turned out to be new species. Dr Elliott has published her fungi illustrations and photographs in international and national journals as well as exhibiting fungi images in the international Ars Electronica Festival in Austria.

The presentation is now available here.

Exploring Newcastle’s Coast: a virtual geology fieldtrip

Newcastle has some fascinating geological features. Join us for a virtual tour of the amazing geology of the Newcastle coastline. This public webinar will give you an insight into changing landscapes over 250 million years.

You will discover the vast forests of the supercontinent Gondwana. Hear about the opening of the Tasman Sea. Travel back in time, to the age of the dinosaurs and beyond! This webinar will take you on a virtual fieldtrip – visiting key sites on the Newcastle coastline with local geologists. Newcastle’s coastline presents a unique opportunity to enjoy the geological features along the Bathers Way coastal walk. From Nobbys Head to south of Merewether Baths, the prominent rock platforms and cliffs of the coastline record many different ancient geological environments. These ancient landscapes tell a story of major volcanic eruptions, river floodplains and swamps, plate tectonics, as well as more recent changes in sea level and the natural movement of beach sand.

The virtual tour explains the geological processes that created the landscape the city of Newcastle is built on — from the rocky ridges to the reclaimed land of the inner city,  the use of natural resources by Aboriginal and European inhabitants, and the adaptation of plants, birds and animals along the coast. It highlights how different rocks were formed, and helps the public identify fossils and geological features. It provides engaging and accessible information on earth science for educators and students.

The virtual tour is a collaboration between the Geological Survey of NSW (Department of Regional NSW), the University of Newcastle and the City of Newcastle.

The app NSW GeoTours associated with this event is now available for download. Enjoy.

Take yourself on the Newcastle Coastal Geotrail tour by downloading the free NSW GeoTours app on your smartphone or tablet (Android and Apple).

Key points of interest on each of the tours have been geo-tagged to pop up when you reach the site.

The presentation is now available below or go to here.

“Legal Personhood” to the Moon?

Join this amazing event to hear eminent speakers & experts in their field talk about the ‘NewSpace’ industry in the context of giving the Moon ‘Legal Personhood’. What would it mean to the space industry if the Moon was a stakeholder in the decision-making process? How would nature have a voice? How would we mine or inhabit the Moon in a sustainable and legally appropriate manner?

 

This was a thought-proving discussion. If you missed it, you can now watch here or below at your leisure

Thanks to our Hub Member Office of Other Spaces

NSW Oyster Reef Restoration Project

Shellfish reefs provide important habitat, forage, and water quality benefits for estuarine fisheries. Unfortunately, shellfish reefs have been almost completely lost in NSW. Oyster reef restoration projects aim to recover these losses. This presentation will discuss project outcomes for recent oyster reef restoration undertaken in NSW.

Shellfish reefs once provided key ecological services in the estuaries of NSW. Unfortunately, these reefs have been largely lost due to historical over-harvesting, disease, and sedimentation. Initiative 1 of the Marine Estate Management Strategy addresses water quality with a clear management action to facilitate and deliver on ground works that improve water quality. The NSW Marine Estate Management Strategy Oyster Reef Restoration Project provides on ground works to restore oyster reefs that aim to improve water quality, biodiversity and fish productivity. Oyster reef restoration is a new practice in NSW highlighting the need for research and monitoring to evaluate project outcomes. This presentation will discuss projects methods and preliminary results, examining fish and invertebrate assemblage responses to oyster reef restoration conducted at Port Stephens during summer 2020.

Science Week 2020 – Port Stephens Oyster Reef Restoration Pilot. New South Wales, Australia

You watch the video presentation below or access it here.

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A network of initiatives enhancing community engagement with S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) in the Hunter.

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