National Science Week 2025

Saturday 9 August to Sunday 17 August

Decoding the Universe – Exploring the unknown with nature's hidden language

Unearth hidden worlds, meet the minds behind the Museum, and experience science in action during National Science Week 2025. This August, Museums Victoria invites you to Decode the Universe through rare encounters with collections, researchers and ideas that shape our understanding of life, Earth, and the cosmos.

Wander through deep time and living science as the Museum comes alive with pop-up talks, and behind-the-scenes insights. From glittering minerals to prehistoric giants, discover the secrets of our natural world alongside the scientists who study it every day.

Activities

Special event Melbourne Museum to

Science On Show

Meet the experts, uncover hidden stories, and discover the science behind Melbourne Museum’s rarest wonders.
A Museums Victoria expert giving a talk in the Museums Victoria Research Institute Gallery during Nocturnal, Melbourne Museum.
18+ event Melbourne Museum

Museum After Dark | Nocturnal: Decoded

Decode the wonders of our universe and celebrate National Science Week at Nocturnal, your adults only invite to experience Melbourne Museum up late and child free.
A man and a boy hold up a wood and plastic contraption they built in Tinkertown
Activity Scienceworks to

Engineers Takeover Tinkertown

Engineers Australia is taking over Tinkertown this National Science Week!
Illustration of a girl and a dog, looking up into the night sky. The night sky is full of stars. The girl is holding a meteorite.
Activity Melbourne Museum

National Science Week Storytime

Did you know that fragments from an Australian meteorite contains the oldest material ever found – stardust!
Activity Scienceworks to

Growing the Future

Plant seeds for the future inside the geodesic dome in the Scienceworks Arena with the ARC Centre of Excellence and Plants for Space.
Old microscope made in 1910.
Activity Melbourne Museum

Digital Art Class: Instruments of Discovery

Explore the fascinating tools scientists use to decode the universe – from microscopes and telescopes to curious gadgets of the past.
Four young people smile while conducting an experiment with different coloured liquids in plastic cups
Workshop Scienceworks Until

Science Studio

Get the whole family involved in this 90-minute workshop full of fun science experiments!
Show Melbourne Museum Until

Deep Sky: Webb Telescope

Deep Sky follows the high-stakes global mission to build the James Webb Space Telescope and to launch it into orbit one-million miles from Earth.
Person holds three illuminated glow sticks in a variety of colours near their face.
Show Scienceworks

The Glow Show

Take a seat in our Lightning Theatre and be mesmerised by all that glows.

Exhibitions

Education Programs

See more science education programs here

Science is a Superpower Series

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Season 2 Episode 5

Can you guess the superpower?

What do ancient artists and dead spider robots have in common?

Season 2 Episode 4

Make a change

Explore fatbergs, superworms and dandelion seeds.

Season 2 episode 3

Learning to thrive

What links microbes, vaccines and the stages of sleep?

Season 2 Episode 2

Observing the world

Follow the clues as you explore lucid dreaming, seeing colour and experiments with rainbows.

Season 2 Episode 1

Developing new skills

What links cat vision, silent fish and invisible bears? 

Season 1 Episode 5

Super kind

Can kindness be a superpower? Sometimes small acts of kindness have big impacts.

Season 1 Episode 4

Super energised

Want more power? Discover how electricity works and harness the power of the wind.

Season 1 Episode 3

Super calm

Holly explores the impact of technology and social media on our brains—and learns some tricks for staying calm.

Season 1 Episode 2

Super curious

Asking questions is the secret to science. Join Holly as she discovers that things are not always what they seem.

Season 1 Episode 1

Super strong

It’s the classic superpower. But what’s the secret to being strong? Holly finds strength in surprising places.

Watch

New Australian dinosaurs, and the oldest megaraptorid fossils in the world

New fossils, and old, are giving us the latest insight into what once was a dinosaur-era ecosystem in Victoria, Australia. New research, led by Museums Victoria PhD student Jake Kotevski, details the first discovery of Carcharodontosaurs in Australia. But these are tiny, unlike their gigantic relatives in South America, raising more questions. Join Jake and palaeontologist Tim Ziegler as they explore these new finds.

The 1980s computer revolution that began under the gaze of a champion racehorse

The Sunrise School led to a revolution in computing, but you’ve probably never heard of it. Intended as a school of the future, this late 1980s program began at the Melbourne Museum, and led a shift in computing that would result in the world’s first laptop classroom. But it wasn't all smooth sailing—the project met an untimely end, with a student walkout. However, its legacy carries on to this day.

How do we know what the solar system looks like?

Have you ever wondered how we know the Sun is at the centre of the solar system? Or why, for most of human history, scientists believed that Earth was the centre of the universe?

Join Dr Tanya Hill, Astronomer at the Melbourne Planetarium, for a closer look at the history of our astronomical understanding of the universe and our place in it.

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