Outreach

Giving Sight to Science

The outreach work carried out by Ílida Ortega Ascencio has meant that she has won this years’ Kroto Family Science Education Prize. Last year Ilida took part in the Sheffield Children’s Festival and presented her work on corneal blindness by setting up an interactive stand for children. The stand also targeted parents by using a poster presentation explaining the common causes of blindness, highlighting corneal blindness and discussing devices being made in the lab to combat these problems. The interactive side of the stand allowed the public to touch some of the membranes developed in the lab and included a black bag where children were asked to identify different items by touch rather than sight. Ílida has also been involved in several other events such as the ‘Festival of the Mind’ and ‘Inspiring and Supporting Enterprising Researchers’. She has recently applied to take part in ‘I’m a scientist get me out of here’ where scientists interact with high school students who can ask the panel science-related questions.

Science Brainwaves

Steph Kerr is part of the Science Brainwaves committee where she is head of publicity. She has helped to organise a number of events and workshops which include helping Beaver Scouts gain their Experiment badge, encouraging girls to apply to study engineering via a stall at an engineering open day and running sports science demonstrations during the Olympics. Steph also managed the organisation of the Christmas lecture which included a science pantomime about the history of medicine and a lecture about the filming of Channel 4 documentary ‘Inside Nature’s Giants’. The Christmas lecture was highly successful and was attended by over 400 people across a variety of ages. Steph will continue her work with Science Brainwaves this year and is currently planning a Science of Whiskey evening.

Further information can be found on the Science Brainwaves website.

Bringing Bacteria to Life

Ali Al-Anizi, Lygia Eleftheriou, Jospeh Hutton, Riccardo Innocenti Malini, David Sparks and Maria Romero-Gonzalez have all taken part in school talks around Sheffield which focused on bacteria and how bacteria interacts with different surfaces. Five workstations were set up for the school talks which included the topics ‘our mouth’, ‘our hands’, ‘the kitchen’, ‘the hospital’ and ‘the environment’. Each workstation included hands-on activities to help schoolchildren understand the basics of bacteria and their relationship to people and the environment. The group have also presented at the ‘Women in Engineering’ conference and are planning to continue their work during next years’ Science Week.