Celebrating science as part of British Science Week 2015

13 Mar 2015

The University is proud to be supporting British Science Week (13 to 22 March), a ten-day programme of science, technology, engineering and maths events and activities across the UK for people of all ages

Events for schools

Here at the University we’ll be hosting a four-day Science Extravaganza, where 250 pupils in years 7 to 9 will visit each day and take part in a programme designed to give them a broad taste of different areas of science and showcase the work of our researchers.

Attendees will visit a Science Fair in the Great Hall, Sackville Street Building, with 23 different stands demonstrating hands-on science from different academic schools and research groups. They’ll be able to programme robots with Robogals, explore wonder drugs in the Pharmacy roadshow and learn about how mathematics is used in medicine, to name just a few examples.

They’ll then visit a workshop led by a current PhD student, exploring their subject areas and allowing our researchers to share their subject passion. Workshops include ‘What do our brains do?’, ‘Testing the mechanical properties of chocolate’ and ‘Mission control: space, satellites and rocket science’. 

Finally, attendees will experience a taster lecture given by a University academic:

• 17 March – Dr Sheena Cruickshank: ‘Who is in control anyway? Our parasite invaders!’
• 18 March – Dr Donald Ward: ‘What is in your blood and urine and why is it there?’
• 19 March – the group will be split for two lectures:
       Dr Eamonn Kerins: ‘Hunt for Earth-2’
       Dr Iain Dupere: ‘The Science of Toys’
• 20 March – Dr Charles Walkden: ‘Cryptography and the Enigma Machine’

Emma Lewis, Student Recruitment and Widening Participation Officer said: “We’re excited to welcome so many pupils from schools in the north-west on to campus to share our excitement for science and to learn about some of the novel research which is going on here at the University.

“We hope this event will spark or fuel the interest of visiting pupils in science and related subjects, and they may wish to continue the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to A-level and beyond”.

Contact emma.lewis@manchester.ac.uk for more details.

Other events as part of British Science Week

Big Saturday: The Body Experience

Explore the wonder of the human body at 'The Body Experience' at Manchester Museum.

For more information visit our events website.

British Science Week 2015: Tell us what switched you onto science! #My1stExperiment

What was the first experiment which sparked your scientific curiosity? What did you do? Did you realise you wanted to become a scientist? It might be the first experiment that you did as a child or perhaps the first experiment you did once you started studying science at university.

As part British Science Week we’re asking staff and students from The University of Manchester and beyond to tell us about the first experiment which sparked their interest in science. Use#My1stExperiment and #UoM so we can identify your tweets. We’ll be retweeting as many as we can from @UoMSchools – and sharing the tweets with teachers and pupils at our Science Fair from 17 to 20 March.

For more information about British Science Week, visit the British Science Week website.

Find out more about The University of Manchester’s STEM enrichment programme on our website or by contacting emma.lewis@manchester.ac.uk.