A compliment much appreciated...

Looking through my Google Analytics data, I found that this site had found my blog and upon further investigation found this rather nice compliment about the heart outreach activity I did for a 'Messy Church' event in February :-) Thanks for the kind words!

Recent IFR Outreach activities

Just a quick post about outreach activities that the Institute of Food Research has been involved with recently.
Firstly, Big Bang Fair 2012 - I wrote a Blog entry for the IFR Blog here.
Secondly, the Science in Norwich day last saturday at the Forum in Norwich (Local newspaper article and photos here). I wasn't at the latter but it seems to have gone exceedingly well with good experiences from JIC, IFR, UEA and many others.

First Day of Spring - new Google Doodle

Today's Google Doodle marks the first day of spring (Spring equinox when day & night have equal length) and is a design featuring stylised plants & animals spelling out Google as usual.

Big Bang Day 3

Hoo boy! Busiest day yet - the public (i.e. families) arrive. Incredibly diverse range of questions which really kept us on our toes - extremely stimulating (if a little wearing on the vocal cords - loud tannoys & PAs to drown you out..)

Large queues for the Space UK ride (don't know if anyone threw up :-))

Other great stands included a STEM club at a secondary school that delivered a science activity to rest of school plus a Primary feeder school (Kudos!) and a school's project on the microbial contamination of mobile phones (apparently some pupils take their phones into the toilets as they are not allowed to use them in school and this just increases the odds of something nasty getting on the mobiles...).

Big Bang Day 2

Loads more children today. Plenty of popcorn got burnt and boxes of wristbands got given out>
Two nice stands spotted (society for applied microbiology - epidemic with typing of organisms) and Durham schools Science and Maths Buskers (Pupils trained to busk) - really inspirational.

Dave's DIY calorimeter needed some running repairs (mainly due to almost constant usage) - so here is the man himself doing his Bicycle Repairman bit (Monty Python sketch reference).









Steven doing a sports health race game with a small horde of pupils playing it. There were some tough questions (so much that some simpler ones were written for future use with the younger children).

Big Bang 2012 day one

Feet up in B&B after a busy day at Big Bang 2012. Predominantly primary schools today. Many quite knowledgeable on caloties. Dave's calorineter worked well and we moved on from burning popcorn to jelly beans. Finding blogging hard from tablet without bluetooth keyboard. Tomorrow should be mainly secondary schools.
To give a flavour of the show see some youtube footage posted by Big Bang Fair below.

For Science Teachers - IFR Big Bang 2012 Crossword resource

One resource on the Institute of Food Research Big Bang Fair (The Big Bang Fair (@BigBangFair) on Twitter)  stand is a crossword to test pupils upon the theme of Food4Sport.

In the highly likely event that we run out of paper copies (and for those who couldn't make it to Big Bang), here is a link to a PDF version.
If you are coming to this event, we look forward to meeting you at our stand!
Come and sing the "Glucose" Song (courtesy of singaboutscience.org), see how a calorimeter works, find out what types of foods athletes need to eat to do well, play some nutrition games and much more...). Also, visit our colleagues at the Food Security stand...

Happy Pi Day!

Today is Pi day - when mathematicians celebrate this irrational, transcendental number.

Creating and using Crosswords in Science Outreach

For outreach activities, the time that you can spend interacting with people can be quite limiting and it can be useful to have 'take home' activities. A good example of this is the beloved crossword puzzle.

I found a promising (& free) package aclled EclipseCrossword that can either import a word/clue list or take input from user and generates a variety of crossword layouts. You choose the one you like and can print, save to EPS and Word (for further reprographic work) or save as an interactive (Java applet or javascript) web-deployed crossword.
I've not yet cracked how to get it into Blogger but here's a link to one (For Big Bang 2012) on the group's web-server.

Institute of Food Research to be at Big Bang Fair 2012

During National Science and Engineering Week, which is organised by the British Science Association, Institute of Food Research scientists will be attending the Big Bang Fair, the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths for young people in the UK. Held from 15-17 March in The NEC, Birmingham, over 30,000 people are expected to learn about science and the exciting careers it can provide. IFR will be showcasing some of the opportunities food science provides, by looking at food for sport and explaining what exactly a calorie is, where all the information of calories in foods comes from, and why sportsmen prefer to look at glycaemic index.
Additionally, BBSRC (our major funder) will have an interactive stand on Food Security at Big Bang.
Update on Food Security stand:
Global Food Security will be exhibiting a great opportunity for students or children to experience science, technology, engineering and maths up close in a fresh new way.
At our stand you will be able to have a go on the two brand new iPad apps developed especially for the Fair. You can learn more about food security, how research is addressing the issues, and tell us your views.
Our physical activities include learning about wheat yields, where your food comes from and waste - how much food we throw away and at which parts of the supply chain.
Thursday and Friday are for teachers and schools, and Saturday is the family day.

International Womens Day marked with Google Doodle

Todays Google doodle celebrates the fact that today is International Womens day where we acknowledge womens contribution to our society. Also, organisations such as Oxfam are highlighting the fact that in countries experiencing extreme poverty, women often suffer the most.