• The Charles Sturt University ‘MicroVision’ exhibition celebrates National Science Week at Wagga Wagga City Library on Saturday 19 August

Charles Sturt University will present a hands-on exhibition of science microscopes and artefacts for people of all ages in Wagga Wagga as part of National Science Week.

The annual National Science Week (Saturday 12 to Sunday 20 August) is a celebration of science and technology, with more than 1,000 events around Australia delivered by universities, schools, libraries, museums and science and research centres.

The ‘MicroVision’ exhibition at Wagga Wagga City Library is being staged on Saturday 19 August and managed by Ms Celia Connor (pictured, inset), a Lecturer in Environment and Agriculture at the Charles Sturt School of Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences in Wagga Wagga.

Assisting Ms Connor are Charles Sturt students Maggie Huang and Avery Koke, and Kildare Catholic College students Olwyn Connor-Gantinas and Arya Mclauchlan.

The exhibition will feature stereo microscopes and compound microscopes supplied by Charles Sturt technical officer Mr Jack Maloney, plus samples and slides.

Ms Connor said biology is the science of life and underpins all the life sciences, and the microbes that live on us, inside us and around us are only visible through the microscope.

“The microscope is a window to an unseen world and allows us to look beyond the everyday into a secret and busy world,” she said.

“This is a hands-on workshop where the students and I assist children and other visitors to look through the microscopes to explore different objects, organisms and samples.

“They get ‘up close and personal’ with the invisible world to discover everyday things that they won’t see with the naked eye without a microscope.

“Microscopes also allow us to see common objects in our lives in a new way as we can observe their structure and surfaces in great detail.”

Ms Connor said looking through the microscope often inspires children to become interested in science as it makes the everyday new and wondrous.

“Children are natural explorers and we need to foster and nurture those qualities,” she said.

“National Science Week is such a wonderful opportunity for children and young people to learn more about science and to consider pursuing a career in science.

“Our natural world and much of our humanity-made social fabric functions on a scientific basis so we need more scientists to explore the world and help to manage the Earth’s finite resources and issues such as species extinction and climate change.”

This free event does not require a booking and is being held from 10am to 1pm on Saturday 19 August at Wagga Wagga City Library, 243 Bayliss Street, Wagga Wagga.