9th - 17th August Science Week

National Science Week Schools Theme for 2025 is ‘Decoding the Universe – Exploring the unknown with nature’s hidden language.’ This theme invites students and teachers across Australia to delve into the mysteries of the Universe by exploring the fundamental languages of nature, including mathematics and the groundbreaking field of quantum science.

Aligned with the 2025 United Nations International Year of Quantum Science and Technology and the 2025 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) being hosted in Australia, this theme serves as a bridge between basic science education and the exploration of specialised topics. “Decoding the Universe” will empower educators to inspire and engage students by exploring the mathematics and quantum science that underpin both the natural world and the modern technologies we use every day, from photosynthesis to satellite navigation.

Each year there is a teacher resource book published by the Australian Science Teachers Association. This resource book is designed for educators from Foundation to Year 10 to engage with National Science Week through inquiry-based classroom activities. It also contains many opportunities to incorporate cross-curriculum priorities, including Sustainability and First Nations connections.

The lessons for Foundation to Year 2 focus on hands on activities: Nature Art Observations using leaves, fruit vegetables and Decoding Animal Prints. 

The Nature Art Observations asks students to look closely at leaves, draw them, make art with them and then goes further with printing using leaves, sticks, fruit and vegetables so that students can identify shapes, patterns and symmetry.

The library has such a great collection of books that focus on leaves, nature art and stamping.

Here's a few:

And some books about animal prints:

  

  

17th August I Love My Feet Day

First off, I certainly do not love my feet. They are misshapen and beginning to give me problems, but that aside today is a day to think about pampering our feet and there are many ways to do that.

Have you ever thought about how many idioms there are in the English language that have 'feet' or 'foot' in them. Young students don't always understand what you mean when you use them. I remember saying to a child at camp once who wanted to get out of the line for the waterslide - It's alright to get cold feet. You don't have to do it. To which he said -  My feet aren't cold! I just don't want to do it.

People my age often say, 'take a load of your feet', meaning sit down, but a friend's grandchild said to his grandmother, 'but he doesn't have a load on his feet'.

You can 'drag your feet', 'fall on your feet', 'walk someone off their feet', 'have the world at your feet', 'vote with your feet', 'get your feet wet', 'sweep someone off their feet', 'be dead on your feet', 'think on your feet', 'stand on your own two feet', 'be under someone's feet', 'have two left feet', 'have the world at your feet', 'get a foot in the door', 'put your best foot forward', 'put your foot in your mouth', 'put your foot down', 'foot the bill', 'shoot yourself in the foot', 'have a foot in the grave'  and not have moved a foot at all!

So today is the day to have some fun with feet (or the word feet)!

Leonardo might have thought that a human foot was a feat of engineering and art, but when you look at feet, most animals feet are. They are designed with a purpose! Some feet are webbed. Why? Some designed for stomping. Why? Some animal feet can hold things easily, unlike human feet. Does the animal foot have a special name? What is a hoof? What is a paw, a talon, a clubfoot?

There are many fun books that will help answer questions such as these?

The book above, Best Foot Forward, together with these will also help you to start a conversation about what some idioms mean:

And then just for fun read:

Still need more? Look here.