Manchester Science Festival
As part of the recent Manchester Science Festival, BII members led by Chris Rose ran two EPSRC-supported public engagement events, at the University's Science Spectacular on October 27th and at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) on November 2nd. This work built on previous public engagement events at both venues over the past 18 months and involved 16 BII members, spanning PhD students to Professors. Exhibits included hands-on puzzles and demonstrations, a guess-the-body-part competition, animated and poster displays, and colouring-in exercises for young children.
The Science Spectacular event as a whole had 30% more university exhibitors compared to last year, and had expanded from Whitworth Hall into its ground floor rooms and some of the Manchester Museum. Around 1700 visitors attended (down from 2000 last year), of which upwards of 80 visited the BII (also down significantly from last year). However, the less frenetic nature of the event seemed to allow more in-depth conversations and likely made for a better experience for visitors.
The MOSI event, as part of their Science Platform contribution to the Festival, was held in the museum's impressive Station Building learning space and was highly successful. The room was comfortably busy all day, with plenty of space and time to talk to the approximately 220 people who visited the BII, many of whom spent a significant amount of time with us. Chris Rose would like to thank everyone who was involved, particularly Cath Wright, Rebecca Elliot, and Geoff Parker. If you are interested in helping with similar events in the future, please contact Chris Rose (chris.rose@manchester.ac.uk) or Rebecca Elliott (rebecca.elliott@manchester.ac.uk).