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Day 3 and thank you all! 🧠 . The Science Experi

Day 3 and thank you all! 🧠
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The Science Experience students ventured into the neuroscience realm for their last day of camp! Inside a human skull is the most complex structure we know of, and it was a treat to learn more about the structure & function of this incredible organ.
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Advice and stories from scientists in our annual career panel rounded out the experience before lunch with academics, parents and students.
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Thank you to all for helping facilitate another successful Science Experience at UNE. Until next time, keep STEAMing through 2021!
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#thescienceexperience UNE Life University of New England, AU Adam Marshall

Day 2 of The Science Experience 🦠🩸🚴🏼🥩
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A window into exercise/sports science, meat science and nursing, followed by a stunning evening at Dangar Falls in the New England High Country.
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Science never sleeps. It’s clear from the questions, interest and energy of our students that they will be working to solve problems across many different areas of life.
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#thescienceexperience #universityofnewengland #curiosity #creativity #collaboration #confidence #candoattitude UNE Life University of New England, AU

Launching into 2021 like... We are so grateful to

Launching into 2021 like...

We are so grateful to be able to run the 2021 Science Experience supported by ConocoPhillips and Santos in a COVID safe environment here on campus this week.

Today students solved a series of crimes using forensic techniques before heading out to UNE’s SMART Farm, Kirby, for en exploration of remote sensing processes and insect ecology.

In collaboration with UNE’s amazing academics and technical staff we hope to inspire students to pursue their STEAM curiosities and undertake studies in these fields into the future!

📌 Pinning Cicadas - look at what Dr Jean and he

📌 Pinning Cicadas - look at what Dr Jean and her niece have been doing this holidays!

After finding many dead cicadas on her property, Jean managed to salvage a few and, with her niece, they have carefully pinned and preserved some beautiful specimens for their insect collections!

If you'd like to learn more about how to pin insects, particularly cicadas, check out Dr Jean's blog on our resources page at:
https://www.unediscoveryvoyager.org.au/

🐠 Do you want to do more for our Great Barrier

🐠 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!

Virtual Reef Diver is a collaboration between scientists, managers, citizens, data analysts, marine explorers and reef operators working together to record, analyse and predict coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef.

The aim of the project is to tap into the power of citizen science to dramatically increase the amount of monitoring data within the Great Barrier Reef, and then translate these crowd-sourced data into valuable information that managers can use to make better decisions.

You can help classify hard coral found in underwater images submitted by professional monitoring teams, reef operators, and citizens so that this data can be used to predict coral cover across the Great Barrier Reef.

We think that’s a pretty worthy cause for some extra screen time!

To learn more and to be involved, head to: https://www.virtualreef.org.au/

Our mystery animal is the Scandinavian Red-Nosed R

Our mystery animal is the Scandinavian Red-Nosed Reindeer – 𝘙𝘶𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘳𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴! 🎁 🔔 🎁

The red-nosed reindeer is a rare sub breed of reindeer endemic to the North Pole. Unique proteins in their nasal mucous react from rapid temperature change, with freezing inhaled air and warm exhaled air, to create a unique red glow. The glow is often strong enough to guide the reindeer through thick fog or heavy snowfalls.

Some people have harnessed their unusual ability to fly without wings to pull heavy carts or sleighs through the air. The Scandinavian Red-Nosed Reindeer are notoriously tricky to breed in captivity so they are rarely used outside of making special urgent deliveries in late December when they are at their most active.

For more What Am I Wednesday challenges, head to our resources page: http://ow.ly/19nr50CKlYl

#unelife #unediscovery #unediscoveryvoyager #learningthroughplay #ruralschools

📷 Jon Tyson on Unsplash

❄️ 🎄 ❄️ It's What Animal am I Wednesday

❄️ 🎄 ❄️ It's What Animal am I Wednesday?

I am native to the arctic to sub-arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere. I stand about 1.2 meters tall, not including my antlers. I am covered in thick brown or dark grey fur which keeps me nice and warm in the freezing landscape. I like to eat grasses and occasionally root vegetables if someone else pulls them up and leaves them out for me.

I have several unique evolutionary adaptations which some people describe as a bit “magical”. I have a bioluminescent naval cavity which enables me to navigate through thick snow or fog. A by-product of digesting vegetables is hydrogen gas, which is very light and allows me to escape predators by making me almost weightless - I can practically fly through the air! I am most active around the winter equinox, which typically occurs in late December.

Who do you think I am?

For more ways to play at home or school, head to our resources page. http://ow.ly/rUDd50CKlLW

📷 Jon Tyson on Unsplash (cropped)

#unelife #unediscovery #unediscoveryvoyager #learningthroughplay #ruralschools

WHAT A BUMPER CICADA SEASON WE'VE HAD! The loud c

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. This is where you can help! The Great Cicada Blitz is calling citizen scientists to record their cicada sightings to gain a better understanding of species’ emergence patterns and geographical distributions. Your sighting may even lead to the identification of new species!

To contribute to the project, head to the iNaturalist website or download the iNaturalist app. Once there, sign up and get an iNaturalist account (it's free). Then you can search for "The Great Cicada Blitz" and join the project to receive updates and start uploading your sightings. However, it's not a requirement to join the project, and you can still upload your observations, which will be collected by the Great Cicada Blitz. Your cicada sightings can be submitted in the form of photos or even audio files.

And remember, you don't need to know what species you're observing. If you simply label your sighting as "Cicadas", experts can help ID it from photos and/or audio recordings.

Head to the link below to discover more.
http://ow.ly/hdhV50CIxtb

#unediscovery #citizenscience #citsci #citscioz #cicadas

📷 𝘊𝘺𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘢 𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘦, CSIRO ScienceImage

#discovery #citizenscience #citsci #citizenscienceaustralia #unelife #steam #stem #helpscientists

Yay! We made it to December! Congratulations to al

Yay! We made it to December! Congratulations to all students, educators, parents and pets. You deserve a hug and a break after this year of new normals and zoom meetings!
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From the UNE Discovery crew to you - we wish you a safe and joyful holiday season, with chances to satiate your curiosity every day.
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Our team will be back in schools from Term 1, 2021, but stay on socials to STEAM through the holidays!
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#unediscovery #unediscoveryvoyager #learningthroughplay #ruralschools #regionalnsw #uneboilerhouse

Today’s mystery builder is the Noisy Friarbird,

Today’s mystery builder is the Noisy Friarbird, known scientifically as 𝘗𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘴, and our mystery object is a nest!

Females build large, deep, cup-shaped nests in which to lay their eggs. This nest has been flattened a little in storage, but you can still see the different bits and pieces that a female has used in the nest. She alone incubates the eggs, but both parents feed the young for up to three weeks, after fledging (leaving the nest). Noisy friarbirds are large birds (30-35cm) and are often found in noisy flocks with other honeyeaters. If you search for some images of the noisy friarbird and check out its amazing hair-do (or lack thereof) - you’ll no doubt be able to guess where the common name of noisy friarbird came from!

For more information check out:
http://ow.ly/h1fB50CE8zx

For more What Am I Wednesday challenges, head to our resources page: http://ow.ly/9aty50CE8zv

It's "What Animal am I?" Wednesday! 🐦 🐤 🐣

It's "What Animal am I?" Wednesday! 🐦 🐤 🐣 🐥

This structure was made by a very noisy animal whose calls have been said to sound like 'tobacco', 'four o'clock' or a sharp 'owk owk'. It is the female who builds this structure from bark and grass, binding it with spider webs. Can you see other things that have been built into this one?

The animal that made this object has a distinctive bald black head. It is silver-coloured around the throat and upper breast, with a plain, dull brown back, rump and tail, and a pale grey underbody. The eyes are ruby red. This animal lives in open forests, woodlands and urban environments in Eastern Australia. Can you guess what this object is, and who made it?

For more ways to play at home or school, head to our resources page. http://ow.ly/30Ud50CE8wf

Our mystery animal is the tuatara. The scientific

Our mystery animal is the tuatara. The scientific name of this animal is 𝘚𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘥𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘴.

The males in my family have spiny crests running along our necks and down our backs. We can fan these out, which is very handy for attracting females or fighting with other males.

Believe it or not, strangely for a reptile, we like cool weather! Over 25 degrees celsius does not agree with us at all but we can live below 5 degrees, by sheltering in burrows.

We are pretty slow growers, not reaching full size until around 35 years old. Our average life span is 60 years but some of us live up to 100!

For more information about the tuatara go to: http://ow.ly/tQVc50CxJqT

For more What Am I Wednesday challenges, head to our resources page: http://ow.ly/3h9k50CxJqR

It's "What Animal am I?" Wednesday! 🐍🐢🐉🐸🐊🐲

You can only find me in New Zealand where I’m proud to be that country's largest reptile, measuring up to half a metre long and weighing up to 1.5 kilograms.

I am the only surviving species in my family, which dates back 200 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth. That means I’m very rare and precious so scientists work hard to ensure there is a plan to look after me and ensure my survival.

We come in a range of colours, from olive green to brown, to orange-red. My last clue - we shed our skin once a year.

What animal do you think I am?

For more ways to play at home or school, head to our resources page. http://ow.ly/nvO450CxIUk

Specimen of the Month

Cane Toad 𝘙𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘢

The cane toad (𝘙𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘢) is a large species of toad originally from South America, but now found throughout the Pacific, the Caribbean and tropical areas of north-eastern New South Wales, Queensland and across northern Australia. Cane toads famously have poison glands that exude a powerful toxin known as bufotoxin that can cause death in a wide range of animals, including humans. Cane toads were intentionally introduced to control cane beetles in sugar cane districts, a strategy that failed miserably, and led to its widespread invasion. The animal continues to increase its Australian range to this day.

Some Australian animals have learnt to eat cane toads safely by avoiding the poison glands; water rats and crows flip them over and eat the intestines, while tawny frogmouths apparently eat them whole without ill effect.

Recent research has shown that toads are rapidly evolving at the invasion front to have larger heads, bigger bodies, but also longer legs to make them faster. They are also adept at invading new areas by hitching a ride in air and road freight, or simply inside passenger vehicles. In the last few years, the occasional toad has even shown up on the New England Tableland in Armidale; but whether this tropical animal could survive an Armidale winter is perhaps asking too much even of this very adaptable invader. Nevertheless, be on the lookout and report any toads you see in the area!

The UNE Natural History Museum has several specimens of toads; our specimen of the month shows a few of these to demonstrate the size range of adult animals.

If you're in Armidale, check out all of our specimens of the month on display in UNE's Dixson Library. For other Natural History Museum explorations, head to our resources page http://ow.ly/S1Ot50Cw3Ku

#specimenofthemonth #naturalhistory #naturalhistorymuseum #canetoad

🔭 Do you love Galaxies that are far, far away?

🔭 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!

AstroQuest is an online citizen science project undertaken by the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Western Australia, but don’t worry – you can help these scientists out wherever you are. All you need is a computer or tablet and an internet connection.

Using AstroQuest, citizen scientists inspect images from a survey of millions of galaxies, and check whether a computer algorithm has identified the light coming from each galaxy correctly. This can be tricky because there may be galaxies and other objects overlapping each other, or the computer may think the galaxy is actually lots of smaller galaxies. It helps researchers to know if the computer got it right. If the computer got it wrong, you have a chance to fix it by colouring in where you think the galaxy is.

You could even get a school group involved!

Check out the link below for more details or to sign up.
https://astroquest.net.au/

#unediscovery #citizenscience #astronomy #citscioz #citsci #australianastronomy

H͢e͢l͢p͢i͢n͢g͢ ͢e͢n͢t͢a͢n͢g͢l͢e͢d͢ ͢w͢i͢l͢d͢l͢i͢f͢e͢

Have you even found some wildlife entangled on a barbed wire fence, in inappropriate fruit netting or discarded fishing line, tackle or netting on your property, in your neighbourhood or whilst travelling?
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.
You can do this by joining the Citizen Science Project called Entangled Wildlife Australia. All that is required is a camera-equipped mobile device and your keen observant eyes.

Check out the website for more details:
http://ow.ly/YmY250Coxag

#unediscovery #citizenscience #citsci #citscioz #wireswildliferescue #birdsofaustralia #wildoz #wildlifeofaustralia

Our mystery animal is the Brown Kiwi! Its scientif

Our mystery animal is the Brown Kiwi! Its scientific name is 𝘈𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘹 𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴. The scientific name of this bird refers to its ratite genus (Apteryx) and its origin being from ‘the south’ (australis).

This native New Zealand bird is a taonga, or treasure, to the Maori, who have strong cultural associations with the Kiwi. The Kiwi can live from 25 to 50 years old, however as they cannot fly away from predators, they are particularly vulnerable to crushing injuries from stoats, cats, dogs and ferrets.

This rare creature is the only bird in the world with nostrils at the end of its beak. This, in addition to sensory pits, provides an incredible sense of smell and allows the Kiwi to sense prey underground.

For more information about this amazing creature, head to:
http://ow.ly/cCZR50CldZR

For more What Am I Wednesday challenges, head to our resources page: http://ow.ly/Oauv50CldZS

“Why hello there! Thanks for having me today for

“Why hello there! Thanks for having me today for ‘What Animal am I Wednesday?’ Can you guess who I am?

I’m a ratite, meaning I am part of a group of flightless birds that are generally very large, although I’m not very large at all! My closest relative is the elephant bird from Madagascar, and I’m also related to my friend across the ditch, the Cassowary.

There are four other species of my kind and we are all found in one country not far from Australia. You might have even seen me as my country’s national icon!

Because I can’t fly away from my predators, my species are declining at a rate of around 20 per week – more must be done to save me!

Can you guess who I am?”

For more ways to play at home or school, head to our resources page. http://ow.ly/5rqA50CldRe

What better way to philosophise about which came f

What better way to philosophise about which came first: the chicken or the egg? than to nurture chicks in your school!
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Pallamallawa Public School are the lucky owners of these gorgeous little chicks, who will inadvertently be science teachers, mood regulators and protein providers.
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Keen to grow chickens at your school in 2021? You can contact the Poultry Hub at UNE for advice!
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Go to https://poultryhub.org
The education page for primary and secondary schools has all the resources you’ll need to keep you chicken focused for the whole year!
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#reallifelearning #chickenortheegg #ruralschools #unediscoveryvoyager

🔍📗The Urban Field Naturalist Project 🎨 N

🔍📗The Urban Field Naturalist Project 🎨

Now, more than ever, we are spending more time in our backyards. 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? Have you noticed little things that you may ordinarily miss? If so, the Urban Field Naturalist Project would love to hear about your discoveries.

The project invites people of all ages to submit photos, drawings, paintings, audio or even videos of things they notice in their urban environments, along with 200 words describing their encounter. So, grab a pencil, paper, camera and some quiet time in the garden. You may be amazed by what is there right under your nose, waiting to be discovered.

Visit the Urban Field Naturalist Project here: https://www.urbanfieldnaturalist.org/

#unediscovery #urbanfieldnaturalist #wildoz #ozplants #citizenscience #citsci #citscioz #drawoutside #noticenature #urbanenvironments

Our truck looking very colour coordinated next to

Our truck looking very colour coordinated next to a stunning jacaranda at Gravesend Public School!
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We’re loving being on the road again around northern NSW. A big shout out to Principals, teachers and students for making us feel so welcome, and smoothing out new routines for sanitation, virus transmission and contact tracing. Kudos!
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#ontheroadagain #ruralschools #discoveryvoyager #nsweducation #learningthroughplay

Do you know your resting heart rate? In The Power

Do you know your resting heart rate? In The Power of the Brain activity we use oximeters to explore ways of controlling our heart rate.
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Students learn about the human brain, and how it connects and controls our bodies. For some students, the realisation that they are in control of breathing, heart rate and therefore stress levels, is transformational.
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What is your resting heart rate? Record it each morning for a month to understand what’s your normal. We’re all different.
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#learningthroughplay #powerofthebrain #heartrate #ruralschools

Thank you Fairfax Public School for hosting us tod

Thank you Fairfax Public School for hosting us today. We were super impressed with your beautiful school, unbounded curiosity and passion to learn.
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Tell a school about our program! We visit small and large schools in northern NSW, bringing experiences in STEAM to the classroom in a fun and engaging way.
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Our activities are developed with researchers and offer a new way of thinking about the curriculum.
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#learningthroughplay #discoveryvoyager #ruralschools #ontheroad

The Power of the Brain is unparalleled. The most c

The Power of the Brain is unparalleled. The most complex biological structure we know of, and these primary students were all over it!
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#learningthroughplay #discoveryvoyager #powerofthebrain #ruralschools

Coding in extreme environments at Fairfax Public S

Coding in extreme environments at Fairfax Public School today! Some wonderful ideas on navigating obstacles in the blood stream, on Mars and in deep sea trenches.
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#learningthroughplay #discoveryvoyager #ruralschools #ontheroad #busybots