As a scientist, I love National Science Week. For nine days, science escapes from our laboratories and classrooms and becomes something everyone is encouraged to explore.
My only complaint is, why isn't it National Science Year?
This year's theme, Seeds of Science: Nurturing knowledge for all, got me thinking about how we actually plant those seeds. I don't think it starts with memorising equations or knowing the periodic table.
It starts with curiosity, and the Hunter is a pretty spectacular place to be curious.
Recently, my family became hooked on hunting ghost fungi. During the day, we searched for the rather ordinary-looking mushrooms.
Then we returned after dark to find them transformed, glowing an eerie green in the bush.
Suddenly there were questions.
Why do they glow? How do they produce light? Why can't we see it properly during the day? That's science.
If hunting through the bush at night isn't your thing, there are guided fungi walks around the Hunter, including tours led by fungi expert Associate Professor Karen Livesey.
Even without the glow, fungi are surprisingly fascinating once you start looking.
As a physicist, I find undergraduate students often have great enthusiasm for astrophysics.
My response is often "me too". My research happens at the nanoscale, but one of my favourite things to do, particularly during the colder months by a fire, is look at the night sky.
You don't need a telescope.
Download a free stargazing app such as SkyView Lite, simply point your phone towards the sky and start exploring.
Find the Southern Cross. Identify a planet. Work out where the International Space Station is.
Then put the phone down and see what you can find yourself.
Explore the sun. Online solar observatories (helioviewer.org) let you see what our nearest star is doing right now, including enormous sunspots and active regions.
You don't need to understand astrophysics to wonder about the universe.
I certainly don't know the answer to every question my kids ask me.
"I don't know - let's find out" is a perfectly good scientific answer.
For families who prefer their science a little messier, one of my favourite scientific suppliers is Bunnings.
Grab a large bucket, some plastic sheeting and elastic straps (and of course a snag) and you have the ingredients for a giant air cannon.
Pull back the membrane, release it and you can send a blast of air across the backyard.
Add some theatrical fog and suddenly you can see the vortex rings travelling through the air.
Why does the air form a ring? How far can you make it travel?
Does changing the size of the opening make a difference? Now you have an experiment.
You can also raid the kitchen.
Purple cabbage makes a wonderful homemade pH indicator.
Test lemon juice, vinegar or bicarbonate solution and watch the colours change.
Cut open a clean disposable nappy and investigate the strange crystals hiding inside. Add water and watch them swell.
Those super-absorbent polymers can hold an extraordinary amount of liquid, which tends to generate questions from kids and adults.
Sometimes science can happen from the couch. A recent book, Wonders of the Quantum World by Danni Holmes, explores how quantum physics connects to everything from photosynthesis to animal navigation. It sounds intimidating, but you don't have to understand every equation to be amazed by what it tells us about our world.
That is perhaps the most important message I want families to take from National Science Week: you don't need to be a scientist to do science.
Science starts when a child sees a mushroom and asks why it glows. When they look at a bright object in the sky and wonder what it is. When their air cannon doesn't work and they try to figure out why.
We don't need every child to become a scientist, but we do need children who are curious, who ask questions, who aren't afraid to get things wrong and who want to find out why.
So this National Science Week, plant a seed. Go hunting for fungi. Look at the stars. Build something ridiculous from a Bunnings bucket. Cut open a nappy.
When your child asks a question you can't answer, don't worry.
Say, "I don't know. Let's find out."
That might be one of the most important science lessons we can give them.
The University of Newcastle's College of Engineering, Science and Environment is hosting a range of National Science Week events that the whole family can enjoy. For more information go to the University of Newcastle website: www.newcastle.edu.au/college/engineering-science-environment/national-science-week
