The festival attracted in the region of 30,000 people of all ages and backgrounds. Events took place across Oxford including science related venues, as well as public venues such as the Ashmolean Museum, Ultimate Picture Palace Cinema, Abingdon Market Place, Abingdon County Hall Museum, Oxford Playhouse, and Boundary Brook Nature Park, with an emphasis on bringing science to the people.
5,000 volunteers were involved in the festival’s events, including the first collaboration with Oxford University staff and students. The Oxford University Science Roadshow took Oxford University scientists, engineers and mathematicians into schools to provide them with fun and stimulating workshops and talks. Pupils at St Joseph’s Primary School in Carterton made rainbows when they received a visit from Oxford University engineers and mathematicians. Rachel Howard, 11, said: “I can’t think of anything more fun than science experiments where we can get our hands mucky.”
Alongside the main festival, The Oxford University Museums also hosted Reactions. This mini festival included the Wow! How? family science fair, where 150 science volunteers were on hand to inspire children aged eight plus to become the scientists of the future including thirty-five stalls, covering topics as diverse as camouflage, dancing spiders, earth’s earliest animals, and custard. The Department of Physics also hosted The Bonn University Particle Physics Show which enabled festival-goers to get closer to one of the world's largest physics experiments, the Large Hadron Collider.
As evidence suggests from past festivals, it is interactive events like these that really generate strong audience engagement and make longer term impacts. Renée Watson, CEO of Oxfordshire Science Festival said: “There is a culture shift, from thinking about public engagement as merely standing and talking, but rather a two way conversational dialogue, creating action, and fusion – getting to more diverse audiences.”
To gain access to a wider audience, scientists and engineers worked with a variety of professionals such as artists and comedians to share best practice, ideas and resources. The festival also explored the tensions between science and the arts, including a family dance workshop exploring the science behind plant life in collaboration with Siobhan Davies Dance, an evening of live performances exploring the science of the human voice, by artist in residence Nathaniel Mann at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and a physical theatre show performed by the theatre company Visualise, using a mix of live science demonstrations to explore everyday objects in unexpected ways.
There was also a chance for participants to engage in a film-making workshop, and film screening of the film Her followed by a discussion on artificial intelligence. Elsewhere, other museums, hosted book readings, and workshops to explore geological digital archives and maps.
Another way the festival was able to reach out to the widest possible audience was by using social media including Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, allowing debate and conversations to come alive before and after events, in a quick and accessible way.
Want to gain ideas for making engineering accessible to the public? Visit the Oxfordshire Science Festival website: http://www.oxfordshiresciencefestival.co.uk