Last week marked British Science Week. Now in its 30th year, the week is an annual celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths. It took place from 8 to 17 March with this year’s theme as ‘Time’.
Activities took place across the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, including:
In the lab activities for A-level students
The Institute of System, Molecular and Integrative Biology (ISMIB) welcomed 100 A-level students for a day in the School of Life Sciences. Students performed experiments and activities in the morning and in the afternoon heard lectures by Dr Jeff Barclay, Dr Tobias Zech and Dr Andy Bates.
Dr Nordine Helassa, ISMIB’s Academic Lead for Public Engagement, said: “We were excited to host 100 year 12 students from five different schools from across the Liverpool region. It was a great opportunity for students to experience science in an entertaining way. With a mixture of hands-on activities and short talks, we aimed to make the day memorable for students, raise awareness about STEM and inspire the next generation of scientists.”
The A-level students loved getting hands on and said the opportunity to speak to university students about their experience at Liverpool was invaluable.
Statistics made fun at Alt Bridge School
Dr David Hughes and Dr Laura Bonnett, Department of Health Data Science, visited Alt Bridge School for an afternoon of numerical fun. Twelve year 11 students (with Entry Level 1 in maths) enjoyed four different activities to help them think positively about maths. The session began by testing reaction times via a simple ruler catching game - all students had a reaction time quicker than that of Usain Bolt!
The students were asked to consider whether they were random or not via a dice rolling activity (they confirmed that humans are not random!) Next, they considered how digital messages can be encrypted via an activity called sociable cards - students had to follow instructions provided on A3-sized playing cards such as move forward 9, or move forward 1 (ace), or 5 (5s and picture cards) etc. Although the students started in different places on the snake of cards, they all ended up on the same card at the end of the snake (i.e. the email was initially unreadable but was reconstructed by the end of the path). Finally they considered how many penguins produced the poo mark seen on a photograph of penguin poo on the snow in Antartica. They worked out that it was approximately 29,000 penguins and that the amount of poo they produced would fill 30 football stadia! Further details on three of the four activities can be found at www.rss.org.uk/hands-on
Personalised medicine at Cronton CoE Primary School
Dr Laura Randle, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, delivered a personalised medicine session for years 5 and 6 at Cronton CoE Primary School, Knowsley. After a DNA extraction demonstration, pupils determined if they were supertasters using PTC test strips and then each created a personalised medicine using coloured sand to match their genetic traits. Julie Roberts, Assistant Head commented: “Everyone learned something new about themselves and the students had lots of fun creating their medicines”.
Family Day at the VGM
The Victoria Gallery & Museum celebrated British Science Week with a Family Day. A number of colleagues across the Faculty were in attendance. Dr Emily Johnson, Computational Biology Facility, brought along a robot and helped attendees become programmers for the day. They sent commands to a real robot to make it move, beep, light up and avoid obstacles. Roshan Hall from the Vet School encouraged some potential future vets with her activities, from finding a dog’s heartbeat to finding a horse's knee. Dr Jamie Hall, Evolution, Ecology and Behaviour, used microscopes, agar plates, and design-a-microbe activities for visitors to learn about microbial diversity and how University scientists study tiny life-forms. Professor Heather Allison and a team of University of Liverpool researchers taught visitors all about phages using giant models. Attendees had the chance to make their own sparkly phage to take home.
For staff and students
If you are interested in organising an event like this in your research group or department, please get in touch with the Faculty's public engagement team at HLSEngagement@liverpool.ac.uk. You can also join our Teams site for up-to-date information and opportunities.