Science at the museum – National Science Week

To mark National Science Week, the Sydney Mathematical Research Institute (SMRI) and the Chau Chak Wing Museum (CCWM) are collaborating on a stimulating weekend for the whole family in the museum at the University of Sydney!

This year’s theme of National Science Week is Seeds of Science: Nurturing knowledge for all. Over the weekend, you’ll get the chance to build your own Caesar cipher and learn cryptography skills to decrypt secret messages in our interactive treasure hunt, get creative with our family friendly maths craft activities and find out how the Enigma machine encrypts coded messages at one of our demonstrations.

Maths Craft Activities (Saturday & Sunday 12 – 4 pm)

Get creative with a variety of family-friendly maths craft activities. Follow simple patterns to create colourful artwork using yarn and explore how straight lines can form curves resulting in beautiful intricate designs. Or use a variety of bendy and wacky mirrors to explore concepts such as symmetry, transformation and how to map a flat image onto a 3D object! Craft your own wacky mirror to take home.

Cryptography treasure hunt (Saturday & Sunday 12 – 4 pm)

Explore cryptography and codes in this interactive hunt around the museum. Learn different ciphers used to encode messages, build your own Caesar cipher, and use your new cryptography skills and tools to decrypt the secret messages!

The Enigma Machine – Live demonstration and explainer (Sunday 12:15 to 1pm – registration required)

Mike Pritchard from the Australian Spy Museum will conduct a live demonstration of a working Enigma machine and provide an overview of the initial design and development of Enigma with the help of genuine WWII codebooks. 

This event is suitable for senior high school students in year 10 and above and adults of all ages. Register now to reserve your place

Interactive Enigma machine demonstrations with Mike Pritchard from the Australian Spy Museum (Sunday from 1pm)

Join Mike Pritchard from the Australian Spy Museum to find out how the Enigma machine was developed and operated to encrypt coded messages at one of our Enigma Machine presentations. As most Enigmas were intentionally destroyed, very few people ever get to see this technology working in practice. For a better understanding of the secret history of WWII and the birth of computing, don’t miss this extraordinarily rare opportunity to see and use working Enigma machines.