We organise events in order to bring people together to share knowledge and ideas.
This page has our calendar of events. The best place to get the most up to date information is our Twitter account and Facebook page.
Upcoming events
Science in the City – 3rd December 2022
Science for All is having a meetup in Melbourne to celebrate achievements and share ideas for the future.
Join us Saturday 3rd December in Brunswick.
When: Sat 3rd December – 3pm until bedtime
Where: Inner North Brewing Company, 10A Russell St, Brunswick VIC 3056
Free to register here.
Past events
Bioreactor DIY – 25th June 2022
Science for All ran a free workshop to build your own bioreactor. We learned how bioreactors are used to make biofuel, used in cellular agriculture, and can help humanity transition away from fossil fuels to more sustainable ones.
When: Saturday 25th June – 1pm until 330pm
Where: Kororoit Creek Community House
This event was partly funded by a grant from Brimbank City Council and public donations. Science for All is proudly auspiced by the Royal Society of Victoria.
Wild Restoration at Organ Pipes National Park – 11th June 2022
Science for All are ran a free event at Organ Pipes National Park.
We had over 80 people come and learn how to get involved in restoring native habitat and species.
We heard from local experts and learned about the history of the Organ Pipes, helped plant native grasses, learned about using environmental DNA sampling to find local species from staff at Melbourne Water, heared from ecological experts, learned about cultivating and propogating native plants, made native seed-balls, and learned about Aboriginal culture from Wurundjeri Elder Uncle Bill.
When: Saturday 11th June 2022
Where: Organ Pipes National Park (Organ Pipes Rd, Keilor North VIC 3036)
This event was run by the charity Science for All, and was funded by a grant from Brimbank City Council, Inspiring Victoria and public donations. It was run with the support of the Royal Society of Victoria and the Nature Stewards program. Thank you to the Friends of Organ Pipes National Park for their support of this event – and to everyone who came along and made it such a great event!
Science communication in a pandemic: access, availability, dissemination, interpretation and misinformation – Tuesday 19th October 2021
About this event
To mark World Evidence-Based Healthcare Day, international experts in evidence-based healthcare, science communication and consumer representatives will discuss the critical issues associated with communicating science in a pandemic:
Whose voice matters? What are the moral obligations of researchers? What are the roles and responsibilities of the global evidence community, and how can we do a better job?
The interactive, 90 minute webinar is hosted by JBI’s Assoc Prof Zac Munn, and features four interactive presentations:
1. The importance of determining who is accessing evidence, why and how, during the pandemic presented by Johanna Hulme
2. The challenges of understanding what information/evidence is available in an infodemic presented by Jo Thompson-Coon
3. The need for different structures for evidence to effectively communicate evidence to users presented by Jack Nunn
4. Knowledge brokering, managing misinformation and working with the media a fireside chat with Nasreen Jessani
Following the presentations will be a panel discussion and Q&A with participants and six panellists:
Janney Wale , Jane Cowl, Nasreen Jessani, Jack Nunn, Jo Thompson-Coon, Johanna Hulme, and Zac Munn (Moderator)
Resources from Jack Nunn can be accessed here:
Plant literacy webinars – 10th and 17th August 2021
Curious about the workings of the plant kingdom? Science for All hosted a free two part webinar exploring the inner world of plants, hosted by firefighter and horticulture student Mick Johannesen.
Slides coming soon.
Science for All and Kororoit Creek – 16th May 2021
- Tufted bluebell (Wahlenbergia communis)
- Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra)
- Yellow paper daisy (Xerochrysum viscosum)
Involving everyone in research: Creating the evidence (1st April 2021)
Join our Director, Jack Nunn, as he presents a webinar for the Australian Citizen Science Association and discusses how people can be involved in research. The aim of the session is to explore the concept of participatory action research with real examples, and to explain ways of planning, reporting and evaluating the process, including using Standardised Data on Initiatives (STARDIT).
When: 1st April 2021, 12PM (AEDT)
An accompanying resource for this presentation can be found here. The peer-reviewed paper ‘What are Systematic Reviews‘ was the first in the world to have a STARDIT report, which can be viewed here.
Short summary: What does human genomics research have in common with environmental research, citizen science – and many other kinds of science? Answer? There’s no standardised way to describe these initiatives, or how people were involved. But that’s changing. Jack Nunn talks about his PhD work involving people in human genomic research and his work running citizen science projects to involve people in saving species. Jack will discuss how for all these projects, he has used ‘Standardised Data on Initiatives’ (STARDIT) – a new system that can describe many kinds of initiatives in multiple languages, including at the planning stage, the doing stage and any impacts and outcomes. It’s only a Beta version and anyone can get involved in improving STARDIT.
Wildlife Gardens: Creating Habitat (24th November)
With the return of the spring sunshine, now is the time to get into the garden!
Join us for a free online introduction to gardening with indigenous plants with Mariea Pacheco, a Gardens for Wildlife assessor and environmental consultant. Learn about the wildlife that also call our streets and gardens home, and how you can provide a more welcoming space for both them and ourselves.
Where: Online (link shared when registered)
When: Tuesday 24th November, 7PM (AEDT)
Registration: Register for free here
Standardised Data on Initiatives (STARDIT) – WikiCite 2020 Virtual conference – 27th October 2020
Learn about how ‘Standardised Data on Initiatives’ (STARDIT) works, what it is and how you can get involved at this free webinar as part of the Wikimedia Foundation’s WikiCite Conference 2020.
Where: Watch the recorded session here
Additional resources: Download this additional resource which includes a transcript of the video
Restorative Yoga Session by Ellen Blackman – 16th October
Come along and join a one hour yoga restorative practice session with Ellen Blackman. The yoga session is aimed to promote mental health wellbeing and provide an opportunity to relax and rest mind through an online class led by a yoga instructor.
Research (this systematic review) has demonstrated a link between yoga practices and optimising the digestive system, improving sleep and activating the body’s natural relaxation response in terms of self-healing and self-regulating.
The important aspect of this session is to achieve balanced respiration, calming the nervous system, feeling safe, supported and connected with our body. The practice offers the chance to work out ‘how to let go of unnecessary tension, how to relax the mind, how to do less’ and more importantly to be kind to yourself on all levels.
Where: Online
When: 16th October 6:30 PM – 7:30Pm (GMT+11)
About Ellen Blackman
Ellen Blackman is a certified yoga instructor passionate about spreading the knowledge and power of yoga to heal body and mind. Learn more about Ellen’s yoga at:
OhanaYoga.com.au and GourmetYoga.com.au
Genomic Research and Involving People – 13th October
Jack Nunn, PhD researcher at La Trobe University and Director of Science for All, reported his research about involving people in genomic research, including his experiences with participatory action research and ways of reporting it using Standardised Data on Initiatives (STARDIT).
A video recording of the presentation can be viewed here. The presentation slides can be downloaded here, the accompanying resource with references can be found here.
The webinar was in English and consisted of a short 25 minute presentation followed by a lively interactive discussion.
Date: Tuesday 13th October 2020
Time: 4:30pm (Melbourne) – GMT+11
This presentation was given as part of Jack Nunn’s PhD research project at La Trobe University (Australia), which is funded by a La Trobe University Postgraduate Research Scholarship.
Wild Restoration – (postponed)
At Science for All we’ve been monitoring the situation regarding COVID-19 closely and we have made the decision to postpone the event on the 22nd March at Organ Pipes National Park.
As we are now in a global pandemic, the best-evidence suggests that we can no longer contain the virus, but we can delay the spread. Avoiding large public gatherings is one way we can help do this – and reduce the potential burden on healthcare services.
We’re all naturally very disappointed to be at this point – however we are sure you will understand and agree with this decision. For those who have registered, your registrations have been saved and we will be in touch about the updated event plans when the time is right.
For now there’s plenty we can all do online – so look out for more ways to get involved.
Stay safe, follow official advice and we’ll hopefully see you all soon for some Wild Restoration!
Campfires and Science at Yellingbo – (postponed)
More details coming soon!
Involving People In DNA Research – Webinar – 24th September 2020
Jack Nunn, Director of Science for All, and PhD researcher at La Trobe University (Australia), reported his experiences with participatory research in human genomic research and environmental DNA research. The webinar was in English and consisted of a short 30 minute presentation and a 30 minute discussion about participatory research and ways of reporting it using Standardised Data on Initiatives (STARDIT). This webinar was organised by the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft research institution.
The accompanying resource can be found here. The presentation is here.
Science for All at Bunnings Sunshine – January 2020
End of year celebration – 22nd December
We hosted an end of year celebration and meet up in Melbourne for anyone who was able to join us to celebrate another fantastic year and discuss the next! 
Campfires and Science – 23rd November 2019 -Yellingbo
This final ‘Campfires and Science’ event of 2019 was packed full!
- We successfully planted 1,300 trees and plants with the ‘Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater’ helping restore vital habitat for the critically endangered Helmeted Honeyeater.
- We tested new ways of collecting environmental DNA soil samples in an attempt to locate the habitat of the critically endangered Leadbeater’s Possum with Andrew, the founder of BioQuisitive.
- We listened to some amazing speakers around the campfire who shared what they’ve been up to. This included learning about a community led project to look for platypus and learning about how to share data about species in the public domain. Thank you to our speakers Mariea, Jodie and Elaine!.
- We went spotlighting with local experts Nat, Chris and Beth – and were lucky enough to witness a yellow-bellied glider in action as well as some platypus!
- We started our Sunday morning with yoga in the forest led by Freddie, and a walking meditation ‘forest bathing’ session led by Marissa and Lara.
This event is partly funded by a grant from the State Government of Victoria and public donations. ‘Science for All’ is supported by the Royal Society of Victoria.
STARDIT – Standardised Data on Initiatives – 1st October – London
We need to know the ‘who’, ‘how’, ‘what’ and ‘why’ of initiatives such as research, education interventions, policy and international development.
Standardised Data on Initiatives (STARDIT) is a proposed way of sharing data about ‘research’, ‘interventions’, ‘projects’ and other similar words that describe any kind of ‘initiative’ or action. It is a proposed way to standardise data about initiatives in multiple human languages.
We hosting an event on 1st October in London and invited people to come and get involved in helping plan how we can create a useful way to share data on future initiatives. Learn more about STARDIT here.
Mudshakes and meetups – 15th September
We ran a free course on extracting DNA from soil samples with Bioquizitive on the 15th September.
Using DNA from wild animals is an increasingly important way to reliably assess biodiversity in an ethical and cost-effective way. ‘Science for All’ is working to make sure that knowledge of how to do this is available for free, to as many people as possible. You can learn more about our ‘Wild DNA’ project here: scienceforall.world/projects
Campfires and Science: Future Knowledge and Wikipedia – 24th August
In our first partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation, we hosted a discussion and working with people to explore the future of knowledge creation and how projects like Wikipedia can support free knowledge, for everyone. We also learned about Australian plants and fungi.
Saving species with Citizen Science – August 2019
Using DNA from wild animals is an increasingly important way to reliably assess biodiversity in an ethical and cost-effective way. ‘Science for All’ is working to make sure that knowledge of how to do this is available for free, to as many people as possible.
We’ve run 4 free courses where people learned how to use environmental DNA to detect species. The sessions were in a lab where people learned practical skills they can use in the forest and beyond.
Campfires and Science: Wild DNA & restoration – 27th July
At this special ‘Campfires and Science’ event we showed people how to look for critically endangered animals using DNA and lead trips to plant trees and restore critically endangered. We were also joined by Taungurung man, Shane Monk, who gave a Welcome to Country and a ‘walk and talk’ education session in the forest. We also heard from Chris Taylor, and expert in evidence-informed forest management in Australia. Our final session was run by Andrew Gray from Bioquisitive, giving a demonstration of how to gather DNA samples in the wild and analyse them in the forest with a portable ‘lab’.
This event was being in partnership with Deakin University Enviro Club, partly funded by a grant from the State Government of Victoria and public donations. ‘Science for All’ is supported by the Royal Society of Victoria.
Campfires and Science: Kororoit Creek – 29th June
At this special ‘Campfires and Science’ event along Kororoit Creek on the 29th June we had a great day – whatever the weather!
People learned how to plant trees, do water testing, use environmental #DNA and microscopes to see what’s in the creek & heard from a Wurundjeri Elder about Aboriginal knowledge!
Date: Saturday 29th June 2019
Timings: Activities start at 1:30pm, welcome to country and free food 4:30pm, stargazing 6pm onwards – come along to any part that you can or stay all day!
Place: Kororoit Creek – Neighbourhood House (GPS co-ordinates: -37.7813366,144.8133104)
This event was run in partnership with Friends of Kororoit Creek, and is supported by the Royal Society of Victoria, and partly funded by public donations and grants from the State Government of Victoria.
Campfires and Science: Future Forests – 21st May
Victoria’s unique biodiversity and enormous trees are managed by the Victorian State Government and they asking for people to give feedback on how these forests should be managed in the future. This free event brought together people who have worked in the logging and sawmill industry, experts on forest management and people who work for the State Government in understanding the views of the public about forests. We got to hear from all of them around the fire, along with some free food!
This event followed a free Royal Society public lecture, and was supported by the Royal Society of Victoria, hosted by the Box Hill Institute Integrated Technology Hub and supported in parts by money crowd-funded by the public and matched by the State Government of Victoria.
Date: 21st May 2019
Time: 5-7pm
Place: Box Hill Institute Lakeside Campus
Campfires and Science: Wild DNA in Toolangi
This free ‘Campfires and Science was attended by around 50 people who met to head outdoors, light a campfire, and share knowledge. At our second free ‘Wild DNA‘ environmental DNA sampling event we worked with the Australian National University, teaching people how to gather samples and look for a critically endangered species which live in the trees. We also tested a new way of finding species on this trip, using mosquito traps to look for DNA in the blood of animals they had taken blood from! After a free vegan dinner, we also heard from local experts who shared their knowledge, including a recitation of a famous local poet. The event was moved to Toolangi at last minute owing to uncontrolled bushfires, and feebback about the event was highly positive.
Date and time: 16th March – 2pm – 8pm
Location: Toolangi Recreation Reserve, Toolangi, (co-ordinates: -37.5348921,145.4728553)
If you want to get involved in helping us plan any part of the Wild DNA project you can get involved here.
This event was run with the kind support of the Royal Society of Victoria and with a grant from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, State Government of Victoria, Australia.
Campfires and Science: Wild DNA
This free event hosted by ‘Science for All’ was attended by nearly 30 people, who had a chance to come and learn how to collect environmental DNA samples. This event was the first in a series of events which are part of our new and exciting ‘Wild DNA’ project, funded by the Victorian Government. Learn more about the project here and how you can get involved. We’re currently looking for members of the public who are interested in being trained to teach others how to gather environmental DNA samples. Contact info@scienceforall.world.
Date: 13th October 2018
Time: 1:30pm
Place: Andersons Mill Campsite, Marysville (Location: -37.5426699,145.7365716)
This ‘Science for All’ event received financial support from the Victorian Government and is supported by the Royal Society of Victoria. Stay up to date with event information at the Facebook event.
‘Campfires & Science’ at Plenty Gorge
This special ‘Science for All’ event on 15th September 2018 at Plenty Gorge, was hosted by the new Whittlesea Tech School and was supported by the Royal Society of Victoria. We gathered around a campfire with some delicious free food:
- We worked with people of all ages to teach them how to gather environmental DNA samples to look for playtpus in Plenty Creek by Enviro DNA with a world-first as we carried out campfire side sequencing of the sample.
- We all had a ‘drone-selfie’ taken by Mick Russel and a demonstration of how drones can be used to help research.
- We had Dave, an elder from the Wurundjeri Tribe Council, talking about the importance of indigenous knowledge and how to integrate it into other kinds of knowledge systems. He spoke about an experimental archaeology project to build a bark canoe in the Plenty Gorge.
- We learned about nocturnal animals and the effect positive effect of changing to LED street lighting with less white in the spectrum from Alicia Dimovski.
- We learned about how the organisation ‘Wildlife of the Central Highlands‘ trains the public to use thermal imaging cameras to spot critically endangered animals in order to carry out research.
- We heard from Whittlesea Council about their Biodiversity Strategy and how people can get involved in shaping it.
‘Campfires & Science’ at Plenty Gorge 15th September