Cambridge Science Week

Cambridge Science Festival 2011

This was the 3^rd year the East Anglia Branch had a stand at the Cambridge Science Festival and it was the best yet. We soon lost count of the number of visitors when it reached several hundred. Young and not so young, professional biologists and amateur enthusiasts, we welcomed the whole spectrum and the day was buzzing. As in previous years, we were part of the Biozone alongside the Babraham and Sanger Institutes, BBSRC, Cancer Research UK, MedImmune, Institute of Metabolic Science and several MRC units.

A range of quizzes challenged  visitors to recognise famous biologists such as Jane Goodall, Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel, identify objects as diverse as a mole’s leg, fish vertebrae and a hornet’s nest and answer questions like What does a sphygmomanometer measure? A parliament is the collective name for which bird? What is the name for a female cat?

The mirror tracing activity always provides hilarity and frustration in equal measures and our Cambridge MP, Julian Huppert did a pretty good job but then he is a scientist!

A new feature was the smells quiz. 10 boxes each containing an aromatic substance. Sounds easy, trust me it’s not. Pineapple was variously described as mango, banana and cheese. Yeast was coffee, cinnamon was “Oh I know it, what it is, what is it?” and ginger was fish, petrol and garlic. Smell is truly a deceptive sense.

Star of the show was again the owl pellet dissection. We estimate 250 people sat down, dissected a barn owl pellet and identified scapulae, vertebrae, pelvic girdles and femurs. 250 people now know that a shrew is a carnivore as opposed to herbivorous mice and voles, recognised by the teeth in the lower jaw. The enthusiasm was tremendous and we’re now booked to do owl pellet dissection with three secondary schools, four primary schools and a scout group. A local home educators network is keen to enlist our help in providing biological activities for their children.

Amongst the first visitors of the day were several children who participated last year and were eager to come and see us again and several of our young visitors came back later in the day to dissect more pellets. This gave us great heart. We’re enthusing the younger generation of biologists and that has to be a mission of the Society. We asked our visitors if they would like us to provide events for budding biologists and their answer was a resounding “Yes please”. Family and schools event are firmly on our agenda for 2011-12.

Ian Harvey (Education Officer, East Anglia Branch)