#FOSAC17 Highlights
It's finished! The Festival of Science and Curiosity was running all last week (8th-15th February) and was an exciting, lively and fascinating week for all involved! The feedback we've received so far has been positive, with exhibitors, venues, volunteers and participants really enjoying the activities and praising the festival's impact on engaging the people of Nottingham with STEM.
Now we've had a bit of time to reflect, here are some of our highlights from this year's festival:
Explorers Fair
The first-ever Explorers Fair, held at Broadway Cinema and organised by Near Now, was a real shining star of the festival. The fair did a great job of engaging primary and secondary school children on the Thursday and Friday and then was incredibly popular when it opened to the public on Friday night and Saturday. With such a broad range of workshops, exhibitors and participants, our hats go off to Hasmita Chavda and all the team for their hard work making it a success.
Light Night
This started off as the brainchild of Rick Hall and Jon Rea and snowballed into a whole evening of psychedelic fun at THiNK in Cobden Chambers. After some experimentation, we hit upon the perfect oil/water ratio for mesmerizing lava-lamps and had to keep running out to refresh our glass jar supply! A peaceful sensory experience was set up in one of the booths, where a Mathmos lava lamp and the Eno app 'Bloom' complemented each other perfectly for an almost hypnotic sensation.
Family Science Saturday
We returned to intu Broadmarsh for a day of science busking, this time accompanied by the University of Nottingham Pathology Department, a pair of giant lungs and an inflatable planetarium. We estimate that over 500 people interacted with the event, be it making DNA bracelets, looking through the microscopes, adding their mark to the artistic interpretation of pathology, trying on a confuserphone or even just passing by with curious eyes.
Many thanks again to all venues, partners, exhibitors and volunteers involved in the festival this year, we're already looking forward to #FOSAC18!