Potteries Science Festival

Potteries Science Festival
Mitchell Arts Centre
Potteries Science Festival
Burslem School of Art
Potteries Science Festival
Staffordshire University
Potteries Science Festival
Potteries Museum and Art Gallery

28th & 29th June, 2018

Our Vision

Calling people of all ages: the Potteries Science Festival is a collaboration between science enthusiasts and professionals looking to bring a WOW! factor to Stoke-on-Trent’s cultural landscape. We will showcase STEAM (science-technology-engineering-art-mathematics-medicine) events in the city and promote the appreciation of the sciences among learners of all backgrounds.

Our mission is to raise the aspirations and ambitions of our community, to inspire our children to enjoy their studies and to encourage the pursuit of ambitious STEAM careers in local schools.

This event is taking place in support of the SOS mental health support group which seeks to raise awareness of suicide among all communities including young people.

@SOS_Initiatives
#supportingsilenceofsuicide

More information » « Less information

SOS Silence of Suicide, founded by Michael Mansfield QC and his partner Yvette Greenway in 2015, are honoured to have been nominated as donation beneficiaries by the Potteries Science Festival 2017, where Michael will be discussing his views of a national DNA database. The event promises to be an educational and inspirational affair, offering something of interest to everyone.

This generous gesture comes at a key point in the evolvement of SOS, which is in the process of changing its status from a social support group to a registered Charity, which will be formally launched in the Autumn of this year.

SOS is currently self funded by Michael and Yvette, alongside donations from the public and from fundraising activities by third parties. Our work and events which are free to the end user, could simply not continue without the help and support of these amazing people.

Since the inaugural SOS meeting on 31 July 2015, SOS has held 25 meetings throughout 11 towns and cities in the UK, meaning Michael and Yvette have so far travelled roughly 4,500 miles

Michael and Yvette are passionate about ensuring the unique work of SOS continues to develop and diversify, with its core objective being the encouragement of free, open group discourse via a safe platform for anyone affected by suicide and/or mental wellbeing issues.

Collectively, through communication, we can work towards eradicating the stigma, silence and isolation that incarcerate those affected.

We thank you in advance for your kind contributions during the course of this festival and the organisers for nominating SOS Silence of Suicide.

For more information, please visit our website at www.sossilenceofsuicide.org, or follow our social media pages on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SOSSilenceOfSuicide/ and on Twitter https://twitter.com/SOS_Initiatives.

Additionally, you can email us at info@sossilenceofsuicide.org.

"It's time to stop the silence"

Events

We Are The Alchemists
Mitchell Arts Centre Evening Event
close

Background

Alchemy is our theme for the evening: producing shiny new knowledge from within our messy world using paper and a pen. How do people do it?

Scientific progress is probably fastest right now in the science of DNA where a global revolution is underway. There is still much we do not know, but advances in DNA science are changing everything, from medicine to forensic science, archeology, to anthropology and the understanding of our own pre-history. You name it, biology is changing so fast that there are no textbooks.

So we now know about the close links between neanderthals and modern humans, to take one example, and we can watch antibiotic resistance evolve in real time.

This is the kind of progress we are seeing, but is it all for the good?

It can be: humans are re-engineering viruses, like measles, to fight cancer but, conversely, some governments are keen to weaponise DNA science.

Our speakers will talk about all this and more. They'll discuss gambling, swearing, nanorobots and computer graphics. They'll use DNA analysis to show just how diverse a community of people we are, including the city of Stoke, but also how globally connected we are.

Do come and ask a tough question, but please keep the heckles clean. We’ll be giving out free beer to help loosen the tongue.
STEM Sells
Undergraduate competition
close
STEM Sells

STEM Sells grand champion

Do we have the next Brian Cox in our midst? Science Talks is a competition to find the most engaging and enthralling speaker from our local universities. Our competitors have been tasked with shining a light on amazing areas of Science to an audience of local school students.

The winners from two heats will go forward to the final and will be crowned Science Talks grand champion.
Competitions
Photography
close
Photography Competition

Competition idea:
Time-lapse photography using a mobile phone can be a nice way of illustrating scientific ideas: by taking multiple images and overlaying them, we can visualise how fast-moving objects change.

Like here where, as the first picture shows, when a ball moves through the air pulled by Earth’s gravity it makes a curve that closely resembles the infamous quadratic equation!

This shape, known as a parabola, has been known for centuries but only recently did Hawkeye make use of parabolae to help umpires in tennis and cricket.

The second picture shows how a bouncing ball forms two different parabolae, one before and one after the bounce.

To make an LBW decision in cricket, Hawkeye needs to use a very accurate representation of the bouncing ball that can be moving not far short of 100mph.

Maybe you can take a time-lapse image of a water droplet hitting a sink full of water or of someone taking a penalty at a local football match?

Scientific researchers have used the same idea to track a slow-moving object, tar in this case.

The video shows a falling droplet of tar caught on camera that was put into position in 1944. Given our forthcoming competition closing date, we don’t recommend anyone performs this experiment.

And ok, gravity doesn’t really pull, it’s a spacetime curvature geometric geodesic thing, but the term "pull" will do for now.
Workshops
Royal Institution Masterclasses
close
Royal Institution Masterclasses

Blueprint Robotics, Dr Ben Dornan of the Royal Institution and Professor Robert Beardmore of the University of Exeter will be hosting coding events in the month of June at Stoke Sixth Form College.

Students will be able to write Python codes to control a robot and flying drones. They’ll also have the chance to design and make their own robot in the Spode maker studio that Blueprint Robotics and the University of Exeter cohabit.
STEM Workshop
Staffordshire University Science Centre, Stoke
close
All Stoke-on-Trent schools will each receive personalised invitations through their Higher Horizons link or Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College.

STEM Workshop

A hands on opportunity to see how scientists operate and the diverse nature of STEM education pathways. There will be over 10 workshops running concurrently, including guided journeys into space, using coding to solve everyday problems, visits to a murder seen, and birthing robots! …… plus much more.
Secondary school
STEAM careers fair and workshops
BSOA, Burslem
close
Contact shall4@trenthamacademy.co.uk for further details.

Secondary school

STEAM careers fair and workshops

A series of talks and careers fair for students in year 10 who will explore the opportunities for STEAM careers. We have speakers from engineering companies, robotics start-ups, biotechnology industry, pharmaceutical industry and many more. There will be a series of hands on workshops for students including crash test physics, robotics workshops and talks on rocket science, being a pharmacist as well as Higher Horizons sessions from academics on ‘Flies and sticky tape’, Forensic science and the Physics of flight.
STEM Expo
Staffordshire University Science Centre, Stoke
close
STEM Expo

An opportunity for learners and the wider community to meet active scientists from the Potteries and afar. It’s a chance to chat, inspire and celebrate our combined passion for STEM, hopefully providing a stimulus for our future scientists, encouraging them to purse their dream STEM career.
Primary School
Workshops
BSOA, Burslem
close
Primary School workshops

A series of workshops for all of our budding Little Einstein’s ready to get their hands dirty and learn about the world around them. We have sessions where children will test for vitamin C, create marble rollercoasters, learn the basics of coding, extract DNA and lots of other fun activities.

Keele Primary Rocket Science day

A hands on day of Rocket Science for Primary school students to attend contact Kris via email at w4a89@students.keele.ac.uk

Competitions

Entries from nominated teachers in schools to: potteriessciencefestival@gmail.com

Save the date:
School events for Primary and Secondary students are taking place during the Potteries Science Festival.

If you would like to bring groups of students to our hands-on workshops, career talks and science activities, register early interest via the above email or at shall4@trenthamacademy.co.uk

Science Photographer

Science writer

Scientists of the Year

School Engineer

Design a Robot

Short Science Film

Poetry

Create an App

Find Us

The festival events will run at the below locations.
Click the maps for further details.

Staffordshire University

Staffordshire University’s Science Centre
Stoke, ST4 2DE

Burslem School of Art

Burlslem, ST6 3EJ

Potteries Museum and Art Gallery

Hanley, ST1 3DW

Mitchell Arts Centre

Hanley, ST1 4HG