Year 12 students visiting Canberra for the National Youth Science Forum were introduced to funnel web, grey wolf, jewel and huntsman spiders during a drawing workshop held by the Griffith-based NatureArt Lab.

Adelaide 16-year-old Kingsley Rosman said the exercise helped him better observe the arachnids, as he was encouraged to take in the detail of each spider for his sketch.

"To be able to work on scientific work while incorporating disciplines outside of that specific science - and even STEM topics in general - was quite interesting," Kingsley said.

NatureArt Lab founding director Julia Landford said her workshops brought together art and science. Its inclusion in the forum's 2018 program formed part of the organisers' push to show students they could combine their passions with science, technology, engineering and maths subjects.

"I think the students really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know spiders a little bit better," Ms Landford said.

"We basically looked at stippling techniques to draw the spiders and understanding both the scientific concepts around the spiders, so looking at their classification, structure, anatomy, a little bit about their ecology and venom, then we did some drawing exercises."

Four hundred year 12 students from across Australia will visit Canberra as part of the National Youth Science Forum, which continues next week.

Participants visit the Australian National University, the University of Canberra and different sites around the ACT, hearing from specialists about different STEM fields.

Kingsley said the program had "really cleared up a lot of questions I had about university".

"I've learnt a lot more about how university works and getting into university courses as well as broadening my horizons a bit, because now I've experienced some of the other universities outside of Adelaide and seeing what they have to offer has given me a bit more perspective on what I want to do," he said.