“I didn’t know science could be so tasty!” @GSC1

Posted on Jun 12, 2014 in Hands-On Universe, Outreach

The weather was predictably dismal in Glasgow on that bank holiday weekend. The calendar said that it was last weekend of May, but the temperature felt more like February. I didn’t mind — the bad weather suited my goals just fine.

 

I had travelled up to Scotland to set up my Cosmic Fun Club stand at the Glasgow Science Centre,as part of their Meet the Expert series of events. I figured that cold and rainy weather meant that even more families would flock to the Science Centre, looking for fun, indoors activities to enjoy.

 

I was ready for them. 2014-05-24 10.26.32

The Science Centre is hosted in a beautiful building in the shape of a starship landed right from outer space. The Cosmic Fun Club would take children and families right to those very same far-away corners of the Universe the building looked like it might have come from.

 

I’ve had lots of hands-on engagement fun in Glasgow: visitors of my stand travelled back to the origins of the Universe in a microwave, simulated craters on the Moon, re-created Jupiter’s Giant Red Spot, built the solar system with fruits and vegs and looked for dark matter with gravitational lenses.

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Everybody seemed to have a great time! Best piece of feedback? One 10-year old boy, licking chocolate powder off his fingers after creating some huge craters, saying with a twinkle of delight in his eye: “I didn’t know science could be so tasty!”.

 

Mission accomplished.

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