National Science Week 2017 was officially launched on August 10th by Senator the Hon Arthur Sinodinos AO, Minister of Industry, Innovation and Science.
The launch event in the Mural Hall of Australia’s Parliament House was attended by many notable partners and friends of National Science Week, along with a number of parliamentary representatives.
Even the table settings were Science Week themed, with activities borrowed from this year’s Brain Break and table names derived from Science and Technology Australia’s Superstars of STEM.
Professor Graham Durant AM, Director of Questacon, was delighted to announce that National Science Week 2017 is the biggest that has ever been, with over 2000 events listed on the event calendar and activities occurring all across Australia. He went on to describe the festival as a chance to engage, to excite, to celebrate, and above all to contribute to the vision of an Australian society engaged and enriched by science.
Minister Sinodinos continued this sentiment with a passionate speech stressing the importance of science in our community and emphasised how privileged he felt to be the Science Minister:
“The future is coming at us. We can either just allow the future to run over us… or we mould the future by using science, and technology, and engineering, and maths.”
He also shared a vision for Australia, where we value, celebrate and revere our scientists and artists to the same extent as we do our sporting heroes.
The event was hosted by the lively Nate Byrne of ABC News Breakfast, a passionate science communicator and advocate for STEM. Nate welcomed students and teachers to the stage, with inspiring speeches by award-winning teacher Suzy Urbaniak, and students Jessica Bowman and Harry Tunks.
Together, they shared their passion for science in the real world, and spoke of their experiences working on local plans for implementation of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The event concluded with a presentation to the Minister of the inaugural Young Australians’ Plan for the Planet – see our next story for further details.
All in all, it was a fantastic event with lots of engaging discussion and excitement.
Welcome to National Science Week 2017!
