Is ‘S’ your favourite letter in STEM? Here are six boredom busting science activities for the school holidays. They’ll totally keep your skills sharp and mind curious!
1. Visit an observatory
We are so lucky to have a wide range of great observatories in Australia. New South Wales has the Sydney Observatory, South Australia has the Arkaroola Astronomical Observatory, Queensland has the Mount Kent Observatory… A quick Google search will tell you where your nearest is. At the top of our science activities for the school holidays list is planning a visit to an observatory. Here you can gaze at the stars and planets through telescopes AND pick the brains of the clever people who work there. They might even share their study and career pathway with you!
RELATED: What’s your perfect space career?
2. Listen to a NASA podcast
Did you know that NASA has four great podcasts? We rate NASA’s Curious Universe where you hear from a different NASA astronaut, scientist and engineer every week.
3. Make your own electric toothbrush
This science experiment come DIY project is lots of fun, especially for anyone interested in robotics or electricity. All the steps are in the video below (including everything you need to do the project), and here if you’d like to read about it instead.
4. Take our science quizzes
How good are quizzes! Here are some of our favourites science ones:
- Which high school science elective should you choose?
- Which chemical reaction are you?
- Which famous scientist are you?
- Is your future career in science or health?
- Which forensic scientist are you?
- How will you save the coral reefs?
- Which biologist are you?
5. Read a scientist’s biography
Do you have a favourite scientist? Why not grab their biography from your local library? If you’re stuck for ideas of what to read, we recommend The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Reaching for the Moon by Katherine Johnson.
If you’re looking for more science reads, be sure to check out our awesome science career profiles, where you can get inspo from biologists, environmental scientists, lab technicians and neuroscientists, just to name a few!
6. Citizen science
Did you know that regular people are working on cool science projects all over the country, even in your local area? With the Australian Citizen Science Project Finder tool, you can find ones nearby, or you can filter by subject and difficulty level. You might get to work on things like tracking koalas, collecting biodiversity data and monitoring changes in temperature and rainfall to see what affect it has on seasonal behaviour of native plants and animals.
You should also check out our latest issue of Careers with STEM: Science and sign up to the Careers with STEM e-newsletter to learn about science courses, degrees and dream jobs!
