The Christmastime Lecture

At Christmastime Animal and Plant Sciences plays host to a major outreach event. Over one thousand Year 5-7 pupils and their teachers from around Sheffield and beyond come to the Octagon to participate in an interactive lecture packed with hands-on demonstrations and incredible video footage.

Following the lecture we provide the children with the chance to look at a range of specimens and demonstrations up close and to talk to our students and staff about science and what it's like to come to University.

Professor Charles Wellman gave our second Christmastime Lecture, "Dinosaurs are Dynamite". Charles has been studying early life on earth for over 20 years. He's an active research biologist and is one of our department's most popular and enthusiastic lecturers, having been voted Animal and Plant Science's Teacher of the Year by our students in 2008. He is dedicated to bringing science to the next generation of biologists.

The talk was dynamite! With a Tyrannosaurus head on stage and a screen filled with life-sized images of dinosaurs we were taken on a roller-coaster ride from the Triassic to the Cretaceous.

Our first ever Christmastime Lecture, "Birds are Amazing" was given by Professor Tim Birkhead. Tim is a Fellow of the Royal Society and has studied birds for over 40 years. He has inspired generations of students with his enthusiastic lectures and was awarded the prestigious Senate Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching in 2007. He is passionate about bringing science to the public and inspiring the next generation of biologists.

The talk was fascinating and truly inspirational, and the visual highlights were many and varied, including a live golden eagle, a flock of 1 day old chicks, incredible images of birds, video of peregrines diving at 200mph and owl chicks bringing up pellets. Great fun was had by all who attended.

• Download a poster for the 'Birds are Amazing' Lecture (pdf 459KB)
• Link to photographs for the 'Birds are Amazing' Lecture