Science festival closes with a Boom!
Hero Carousel
Published
16 September 2024
Share
UEL academics and alumni were out in force for the weekend programme of the British Science Festival extravaganza, where our Stratford Campus hosted interactive workshops, live experiments, and cutting-edge research talks.
Top of the bill was UEL alumni and TikTok science sensation, Big Manny, who wowed crowds at Old Town Hall Stratford.
The session, run in partnership with the Royal Institute and attended by a large crowd of all ages, gave attendees a front-row seat to see incredible science demonstrations up close – from controlled combustion in bottles and foam explosions, to the use of different metals to create colour-changing flames.
Manny took the time to explain the science behind each experiment, while also sharing how he got into science and how he’s using his technical skills to bring science demonstrations to new audiences using social media.
He said,
hen I was in Year 8, I had a science teacher call Mr. Carter. He was one of the most really engaging and passionate science teachers. When he was teaching, you could see his face light up and you could see the excitement that he had. And he passed that science onto me. So, I'm basically trying to do the same thing for the young people today, exciting them with science, the same way my teachers excited me.”
“Science is a thing where you can't just open a textbook and expect to learn, you actually need to do the experiments. You need to see the fire, see the colour change, see the temperature rising.”
"University is great, to be honest, and I'll tell you why. Once you have a qualification or a skill, you've got that for life. You can take that with you anywhere in the whole world and you're always going to find work. You're always going to be able to earn money. So getting a qualification or a skill is about actually securing a future and making sure that you will always be good when you're older."
Our buzzing student hubs at Water Lane were also packed with sessions and activities, including; UEL’s Eve Stamatiou and team showcasing how VR and performance techniques can boost motivation and resilience, using ‘ethnoacting’ to foster a growth mindset and help people tackle challenges effectively.
Curated by Associate Professor Carl Hayden Smith, The Museum of Consciousness took us on a journey of thought experiments, sound journeys, and dream incubations.
“We had a fantastic hour of deep listening, looking at consciousness, understanding that sound has a real power to get us into altered states very rapidly and we’ve explored a number of different artists’ work and had a whole landscape of different sounds.”
On Saturday Alexander Thomas delved into the world of transhumanism and its accompanying ethical questions. Sheeba Viswarajan and her team of UEL trainee teachers brought overlooked stories out of the shadows in Unveiling the Unseen Faces of Science.
The team at UEL’s BabyDevLab helped Festival attendees catch a glimpse into the world of baby brains. Visitors made their way through a series of rooms highlighting different types of technology being used to monitor – and better understand – infants.
BabyDevLab manager and new UEL PhD student Maria Penaherrera Velez explained how wearable technology – using cameras, microphones, GPS, and heart rate monitoring, among other things – is being used by researchers to explore how children’s learning, behaviour, and stress levels may differ between indoor and outdoor learning environments, saying “Creating this event for the Festival was really focused on giving parents and teachers, and the general public, the opportunity to come and see what we are doing in a friendlier language.”
Bringing the festival to a fabulous and raucous close was Cheddar Gorgeous, visual artist, academic and star of Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK who closed out the festival in style alongside artist Jake Elwes.
Cheddar echoed the thoughts of all attendees and speakers, saying, "I hope that science becomes more open, becomes more transparent, becomes more nuanced, and becomes more accommodating with diverse opinions, but at the same time, remains rigorous."
"I feel like science is part of a huge conversation that's shaping so much that's important for the human race so I think it's imperative that we keep it centred in people's imaginations because it shouldn't just be about something that's dry and dreary and dull and boring. It should be something that's making us excited! It should be something that's engaging our brains, not just the way we think, but also the kind of possibilities that we can imagine."
The British Science Festival is the culmination of UEL’s Year of Science which has been phenomenally successful in highlighting the importance of science in every aspect of our lives.
Share
Communications team
Contact us for press and interview requests