SCIENCE ALIVE! 2024 Adelaide

SCIENCE ALIVE! 2024 Adelaide

Held each year in Adelaide, Science Alive! is the largest, single, interactive science exhibition in Australia. The SA/NT branch has been involved for many years now and each year we continue to improve with interactive activities as well as old favourites.

Running for 3 days, Friday was STEM day in which we reinforce or spark an interest in STEM and all things Microbiology. This year there were 4,350 students year 7-12 in attendance.

Saturday and Sunday were crazy days! Open to the public - 17,000 this year! - from tiny tots to older school children and, of course, interested parents with lots of questions in the area of infectious diseases. The 2 days involved painting bacteria on kids faces or hands, helping them make bacteria from play-doh and trapping them in a petri dish (to take home), a dark room containing glow in the dark vibrios, and bacteria and parasites to look at under the microscope.

Special thanks to Thermofisher for donating petri dishes and Eppendorf for donating prizes for interactive games. Big thanks to Lora Bowes and the micro team at UniSA for making media and plating out the vibrio – such artists, and to all of this year’s enthusiastic volunteers. And lastly much thanks to the Science Alive committee - Andrea McWhorter, Amanda Kenyon, Kimberley McLean, Anja Zelmer and Kate Jeffery. With this team behind me, the lead up to the event and the weekend itself was a great experience. Still not sure who had the most fun, us or the children…?

Written by Tania Veltman