North Wyke School Science Fair 2012

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Schools visit at North Wyke

The Science Fair has been held annually at North Wyke since 1997. In 2011 Rothamsted Research at North Wyke was awarded first place for the Outstanding Contribution Award from the British Science Association National Science & Engineering Week and a cash prize of £800 to put towards events for the next Science and Engineering Week. This year that money was put to good use.

The Rothamsted Research North Wyke Science fair was held from March 13th-15th this year with funding from BBSRC and in conjunction with STEM and Devon Education Business Partnership. This year our enterprising Rothamsted students together with the students of the University of Exeter Physics Department volunteered to give a series of workshops to show school children that science can be interesting and fun. Schools took part in 4 hands-on workshops:

What is in the soil? - chemical analysis of soils, flame tests and pH tests - run by Claire Horrocks, a PhD student at Rothamsted North Wyke

Insect evolution - fun activity to show the random nature of evolution - run by Sabine Peukert, a PhD student at Rothamsted North Wyke

Weather Watch! - hands on meteorological measurements - run by Paulo Dumont a PhD student at Rothamsted North Wyke

Blasting into space! - space related experiments and creative physics you can do at home - run by the students of Exeter University Physics Dept. in conjunction with the Institute of Physics

Over 230 children attended over 3 days from 10 local Devon primary schools with attending teachers. Verbal feedback was enthusiastic, and we gave feedback sheets to teachers for children to fill in once back in class, to help consolidate in their minds what they had seen. With the sun shining, and rockets being let off on the lawn, Rothamsted Research North Wyke once again had a very successful Science Fair.

2012 Coordinators

Admin: Dr Anita Shepherd

Practical: Debbie Beaumont

STEM Ambassador: Dr Phil Murray

Also involved: Sabine Peukert, Paulo Dumont, Claire Horrocks, Jinsong Wang and Rob Dunn

Photos: Click to enlarge