Delivering workshop sessions at Sci Fest 2024

We returned for the third year running to take part in the fantastic Sci fest science festival at the University of Wolverhampton. However, this year it was different…..

… rather than delivering our activities from a stall in the festival we, instead, delivered pre booked workshops for ~60 school pupils (day 1) and a drop in workshop session for families (with about 140 visitors on Day 2) . our the comfort of our very own room.

Visitors were introduced to Materials Science and then got hands on by smashing chocolate (to investigate the effect of both internal structure and temperature on the toughness of different chocolate bars), making their own hydrophobic surfaces and working out why surface structure is important to help keep lotus leaves dry. They also used UV colour changing beads and UV torches to investigate how good different materials are at blocking out UV light.

We had a great time, our ambassadors were fantastic and it was really nice to see families work together to carry out their own investigations also to work with highly engaged school and home-schooled pupils.

Huge thanks to Martin Khechara and the rest of the great STEM Response team for inviting us and very much hope we get an invite for 2025.

“A fantastic interactive experience which our pupils (and teachers) really enjoyed. It encouraged them to think about the role of materials science in our lives and inspired them with an insight to the exciting further study and career opportunities available” – Mrs Alssop (teacher at St Edmund’s Catholic School)