Cheltenham Science Festival – a lesson in public engagement

By Rebecca Williams (@volcanologist)

Last week I was part of a University of Hull team who went to Cheltenham Science Festival (CSF), one of the biggest science festivals in the UK. CSF is a six day event of talks, demonstrations and general science fun aimed at everyone from school children to retired adults. We were involved in activities across this spectrum. The GEES team had a River in a Box display in the Discover Zone to show how rivers work, headed by Dave Milan and Dan Parsons, and delivered by an army of awesome postgrad students. Dave Milan debated 'A waterproof World?'. Dave Bond and I gave a talk on mass extinction and volcanism. March Lorch and Phil Bell-Young seemed to be doing a million things from workshops for school children on ‘your body the chemical analyser’ to a talk on ‘iPads and avatars’ - the motion capture monkey who stars in this had been entertaining the Green Room with his antics, including a few celeb scientists!

The GEES' 'River in a Box' at CSF. Photo courtesy of Chris Unsworth (@unsteadyriver)

For me, it was one of the first times I gave a talk to a true ‘public’ audience. I do a fair amount of public engagement and outreach activities. I do schools events, I run a Twitter account and have done chats to school children using it, this blog’s original intention was for a general audience, and I’m booked in for talks this year at both the Hull Geological Society and the Rotunda Geology Group (Scarborough). This was the first time though that I was giving a talk to a genuinely unknown audience, who didn’t have a particular interest in geology. And they were paying!

Can volcanoes wipe out life on Earth? Mine and Dave's talk at CSF. Photo courtesy of Leiping Ye (@Leiping_Ye)

Dave and I were quite happy with our talk. It showcased some of Dave’s NERC funded research and we’d developed a pretty cool ThermiteVolcano especially for the event, with a lot of help from our pet chemist Mark. We got lots of great questions and were followed by a group to The Times Talking Point for further discussion. People in the audience have contacted me since to say how much they enjoyed it.

Some of the FameLab International Final winners (Alumni and Audience awards) being presented with their prizes by Prof Alice Roberts

That night though, we all went along to the FameLab International Finals and I was blown away. If you don’t know it, FameLab is a competition of science communication, a kind of XFactor for scientists. Contestants get 3 minutes to entertain and educate the audience about a particular scientific concept. This year, finalists presented science stretching from how language works in the brain (done in sign language as well as spoken!) to how exercise can boost stem cells to combat dementia to how honey bees can be trained to detect explosives and drugs (and are better than sniffer dogs!). The science is not dumbed down, nor is it jazzed up. It is explained beautifully and clearly, sometimes with props and sometimes without.

This got me thinking back to my talk. Did I really need all those powerpoint slides? Did I really need all those facts and figures? Events such as the brilliant Cafe Scientifique movement would argue that we don’t need powerpoint at all and my experience at FameLab would back that up. So, what next for my engagement activities? Mark has finally convinced me to give the Beverly Cafe Scientifique a go, so I’ll see how I’ll fare without my powerpoint comfort blanket. Dave and I are planning on doing our ‘Can volcanoes wipe out life on Earth?’ talk in Hull this year, maybe as the Christmas Lecture. In the meantime, I’ll be taking part in ‘I’m a scientist...get me out of here!’ over the next couple of weeks, an exciting chance to chat science to school children.

Cheltenham Science Festival - I loved the giant molecules scattered about the place

I’ll leave you with a question though. Engagement isn’t about us, as GEESologists, it’s about you guys – the people reading this blog and coming to these events. What do you want to see, hear or read about? And how best can we tell you about it? Let us know your thoughts!

A quick shout out to those awesome postgraduate students: Leping Ye, Chris Unsworth, Claire Keevil, Dave Jordan and Xuxu Wu. Special thanks also to Cameron Webb, who only popped down for the day to see our talk and ended up getting roped in to help!

Hull University Science Festival 2014

by Chris Skinner (@cloudskinner)

One of the great joys of academic life is getting the opportunity to communicate our research to the public - it is one of the key motivators of this blog after all. We spend much of our time in a bubble and become accustomed to our jargon and way of life which seems a bit alien to those outside the bubble, so it is also very healthy for us to step out once in a while and engage with those out there. The challenge is finding ways to communicate our research in ways that are informative and engaging.

This year, the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Hull organised the Hull Science Festival. Running as part of National Science Week (which one attending school pupil pointed out to me was 9 days, and not actually a week), it saw students and staff from the university present their research to members of the public.

The Science Festival ran on a Friday and Saturday. Friday was an early start as the Hull Bondholders ("The Bondholder Scheme is an almost 200-strong powerful network of businesses, who work together to raise the profile of the Humber") held their regular breakfast meeting at the University as part of the Festival, which allowed us to explain the benefits of our research to business in the area. After the breakfast (after we had mopped up the leftover sausages - all the bacon had gone), the audience changed to school pupils and their teachers, as local schools were invited to attend.

Throughout the day the marquee containing the exhibitions was open for the pupils to mill around and chat to us, whilst the schools took it in turns to attend the presentations and demonstrations conducted elsewhere on campus. Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to see any of these. The pupils all seemed very excited and keen to know more about the displays on offer, and I also got the chance to chat to the teachers from my old school, Baysgarth, who had brought some pupils along.

The Saturday was open to the public to just come and go as they pleased and wander, and hopefully wonder, around. This was a busy day where I spent almost all of it talking to people about my research and the Humber. It coincided with an Open Day too, so prospective students got a further opportunity to see just what an active and exciting university we are.  All in all, it was a great couple of days and I hope it becomes a regular fixture in our calendar.

Unfortunately for me and my chances of looking around, both days were very busy and I spent much of it manning my stall, demonstrating the Dynamic Humber Project's work on understanding the 5th December storm surge, but I did get to see some of the neighbouring displays.

GEES were out in force for the Festival, as shown below - 

The view over the GEES displays

I've got a bone to pick with you! (Photo by Dr Jane Bunting) 

Dr Malcolm Lillie brought along skeletons and bones from his archaeology collection, including some pieces which were over 7,000 years old.

You say stomata... (photo by Dr Jane Bunting)

Dr Jane Bunting set up a microscope and gave people the opportunity to take peelings from a holly leaf. Observing these peelings under the microscope revealed the leaf's stomata (mouth-like pores that exchange gases and moisture between the the air and the plant) - this was to highlight the research into how leaf structure can change in response to weather and climate.

GEES PhD Student, Ross Jenning's, demonstrating how to harness tidal power for electricity (photo by @HullOpenDays)

Prof Jack Hardisty brought along a prototype of a tidal generator which was used to demonstrate the potential of harnessing the abundance of tidal energy in the Humber to generate electricity.

Here, Dr David Milan demonstrates how changes to the land surface can influence run-off. Whilst the water on the hard surface drains the tank very quickly, the natural surface absorbs the water, holding it for longer and reduces the levels of flow - this can help reduce the impacts of flooding.

In addition to the displays above, we also had posters from other members of the Department, including showing off research in Human Geography by Prof David Gibbs and Dr Kirstie O'Neill, who showcased their research on green entrepreneurs  and the role they play in making building more sustainable. Dr Deborah Butler was often seen wielding an iPad ready to demonstrate the FoodCrowd app she blogged about last week.

We weren't the only ones at the Festival, not by a long shot, and below are some the highlights around the marquee - 

Beequiet and Beehave

Dr Darren Evans from the University's School of Biological Sciences brought along some bees in a commercial hive. Although largely confined to a netted cage, one plucky bee escaped and enjoyed a ride on the tidal generator. 

Biodiversity Jenga and Coffee! (photo by Darren Evans)

Dr Evans also brought along his giant Biodiversity Jenga set, which demonstrates how the successive removal of species from a system can lead to environmental collapse.

My favourite part of, my limited view of, the Festival was the 3D printer brought along by Computer Science. I love these things and have been following their development for years, but this was the first time I had seen one for real, and it was working! The potential for these things is enormous, and I'm not just saying that as a secret collector of toy soldiers. Computer Science also brought along a few robots and their Oculus Rift (virtual reality equipment, recently purchased by Facebook) set up which they aim to use to train people to install and maintain offshore windfarms from the shore.

Racing for Formula Student (photo by Hull University)

Also there were the Hull University Formula Student team. A group of Engineering students who have built a racing car and race it in competitions. Their demonstration included a sit in simulator where people could have a go themselves - there was also a leaderboard going for the fastest lap times.

Smile! (Photo by Hull University)

Opposite me was a popular set of animal skeletons. I was told that these were donated to the University by the Natural History Museum in London when the University was founded in 1927. They are exquisite things, and included an ant eater, a horse, tortoise and a rhino skull.

Flying Magnets! (Photo by @HullUniScience)

Throughout the day I saw many people walking around with bags of goo, DNA sweets and all sorts of other goodies that were being given out. There were people extracting DNA from peas, and racing plankton (won by our very own Prof Dan Parsons) or even racing over a magnetic elevation track. Lots of fun was had by all and I'm looking forward to next year. If you attended the festival, why not leave a comment below about what you enjoyed most or what you would like to see in the future?

For more pictures, follow this link to the official Science Festival gallery.

Whilst I was writing this post, as part of a ongoing series of elaborate April Fool's gags from Google (which has seen me collect all 150 Pokemon and desperately search for Mew), one of the photos used got "Auto-Awesomed". The result was too good not to share.