Inspiring young minds with Science and Engineering Week at St John’s (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Inspiring young minds with Science and Engineering Week at St John’s

10:00am Saturday 23rd March 2013 in News

Sciene and Engineering Week at St John’s got off to an explosive start as thousands of youngsters and their families turned out at the fourth annual Science Fair.

Around 2,200 people descended on St John’s on Saturday to take part in hands-on experiments and watch planetarium shows.

Organiser Sally Beare said: “It went really well and we were very lucky with the weather because we had a window of sunshine between 11am and 3pm when the fair was running.

“We had a lot of outside exhibitors this year and they’ve given some very positive feedback. A lot of them have said they want to come back next year.

“There were a lot of families with primary school children and one of the comments on the feedback cards was ‘totally inspiring for my children aged six and seven’, which is great.

“There were a lot of things that could be taken away from the fair and practised at home, and a lot of the visitors gave the event five stars.”

The school has been given an award from the British Science Association for outstanding efforts to promote Science and Engineering Week.

Ms Beare said: “I was really pleased; it made all the hard work seem worth it.”

On the day, visitors were invited to create intricate structures out of spaghetti, build their own Stonehenge and make oboes from straws, to name just a few of the activities on offer.

Scientist Dr Mark Biddiss wowed audiences with two shows; the Cool Science and Maths Show, which included exploding water, belching balloons and flying fish; and the Tricks of the Mind Show, involving magnetic fingers, antigravity arms and coloured ghosts.

The fair is run as part of the National Science and Engineering Week, and throughout the week there have been several other activities going on at the school, including a talk by wildlife cameraman Dr Michael Leach.