SciFest 2025

Dr Vanessa Pirotta merges cutting-edge technology with conservation science. As the lead scientist for the citizen science project Wild Sydney Harbour, she connects communities with marine life while promoting the fusion of Indigenous knowledge and Western science.

Vanessa is a proud author of educational children’s and adult books, which illuminates her vision for STEAM being part of the everyday.

Explore the wonderful world of deep-time astronomy with Grant Salmond form the Australian Age of Dinosaurs. Join us as we read and learn together about the history of the universe and the surprising ways stars are connected to the dinosaurs and geology of our home planet Earth. We will also learn about ways we can preserve the darkest skies in the world for all generations to share.

Peculiar Parents introduces us to 60 Australian animal species, focusing on all things family – picking a mate, making a home, having babies, finding food and looking after one another.

You’ll meet parrots that play the drums and cuttlefish that can change colour, as well as dancing spiders, travelling turtles, kissing lizards, plonking pobblebonks and many more amazing Aussie animals.

Dr James O’Hanlon is a writer, illustrator, and artist. He has travelled around Australia and the globe uncovering the secret lives of insect, spiders and other mysterious animals.

Sid and the very hard to find squid.
No one has ever seen a colossal squid in the wild, but Sid is determined to be the first. Join Sid on his exciting quest to find this incredibly rare animal.

Look closely and you might just find a cheeky colossal squid too.

Meet marine scientist, shark expert and children’s book author Melissa Cristina Márquez in this special Science Week session! Melissa will discuss her work as a shark scientist and explain why sharks are so important to healthy oceans. She’ll also touch on the threats sharks face today and how we can all help protect these fascinating creatures.

In this lesson we will explore the mathematics of dinosaurs! What can maths teach us about dinosaurs, and can dinosaurs teach us anything about maths? We’ll look at how dinosaurs moved, what speeds they may have run at, and, how dinosaurs may even teach us new ways to use maths.

The Careers in STEM panel is a 60-minute online session is designed for students exploring career pathways and future opportunities in STEM fields.  

Your passion and interest now, could be your future career.

Decoding the wild: animal communication at Sydney Zoo. Do you know what animals are saying? Join the Sydney Zoo education team as they dive into the many ways animals communicate and navigate.

Interact with the Reef Guardian Education team during the introduction to the Be a Marine Biologist for a Day program. Develop your knowledge of marine life identification and reef monitoring techniques as we explore reef health indicator species and discuss their importance on the Great Barrier Reef.

Want to find out how to make a world record breaking paper plane?

Ever wondered what maths and sunflowers have to do with each other?

Considered what makes a coral reef a coral reef?

Ever wondered why the sky is blue, how black holes work, or what quantum science even means? Join the one-and-only Dr Karl Kruszelnicki as he unpacks the mysteries of the universe in this exciting National Science Week event: Q&A with Dr Karl – Decoding the Universe.

Join Tim Macdonald, an accomplished engineer who has travelled to the deepest part of the ocean. This unique opportunity will allow students to gain first hand insights into the fascinating world of underwater exploration. Don’t miss out on this chance to learn from a true expert in the field and ask him all your burning questions!

This Science Week, learn about the features, habitat and behaviours of some truly peculiar Australian animals. In this interactive online learning session, your students will join author Stephanie Owen Reeder and illustrator Ingrid Bartkowiak as they discuss their new book Peculiar Parents.

Learn about ocean plastic pollution and put your detective skills to the test! Discover how Seabin Foundation remove plastic pollution from our waterways and explore some of the surprising rubbish they have found. We’ll work together to trace the mysterious plastic pollution back to its source and brainstorm ways that we can help to combat the plastic pollution problem.

Dive in deep as we explore each of the five ocean zones and discover what makes them a unique habitat. We’ll investigate each layer of the ocean and discuss its environmental conditions, the species that have adapted to survive there and the technologies used to explore it. 

Dive into the science of ocean environments in this interactive virtual excursion from the Museum of the Sea. The ocean is a unique, irreplaceable environment that is home to many living things. This session builds on UNESCO’s ocean literacy principles to help students understand why the ocean is important for all life on Earth. We’ll discuss the pollution problems facing our ocean, learn about real life examples of sustainability and brainstorm achievable ways to help the ocean in our everyday lives.

Sketches of inventions. Photographs of galaxies. Portraits of scientists. These are all art. Join the National Portrait Gallery for an interactive and engaging program as we will visually analyse three portraits of prominent Australian scientists. Students will brainstorm and draw their ideas, then end by drawing a portrait of themselves as scientists.

Learn how storytelling meets science in this special program presented by the National Portrait Gallery and Questacon for National Science Week. Join legendary science journalist and broadcaster Robyn Williams AO as he explores stories of Australia’s greatest scientific minds through their portraits. Additionally, an educator from Questacon will deliver an associated experiment, allowing students to experience with the scientific concepts presented.