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PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT


Big Bang Fair: engaging next-generation scientists


Each year in March, the NEC in Birmingham comes alive with the buzz of enthralled youngster as they interact with scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians at The Big Bang Fair. Sandra Phinbow reports.


The Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair is the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for young people in the UK. Its aim is to show students aged between seven and 19 the wonderful and rewarding opportunities open to them by a series of exciting theatre shows, interactive workshops and careers information. To paraphrase Shakespeare, this is the stuff a youngster’s dreams are made on, and is difficult or even impossible to recreate in a classroom environment. I have been a science communicator


since 2008 and love going into schools, colleges and universities to make a mess and an awful racket in the name of science; amazingly, I am invited back for more. I also have the honour of seeing science and engineering before anyone else; as a senior STEM judge, I meet some of this country's most creative and innovative young minds, and present them with awards.


Ideas and energy I had attended the Big Bang Fair (BBF) before, offering advice to A-level students or undergraduates about how they can enter the biomedical science profession; perhaps showing youngsters some sections of tissue to help them understand the disease process and how vital histopathology is to diagnosis. This year, with the support of the IBMS, I managed to encourage a group of like-


‘The Big Bang Fair aims to show students rewarding opportunities open to them by a series of exciting theatre shows, interactive workshops and careers information’


minded biomedical scientists to join me, the idea being to man a larger Institute stand over the four days of the event I was blessed with six volunteers to help


me cover the full four days of the BBF event, the team comprising Pav Jheeta, Ben Hammond, Michelle Watson, Gurveer Singh- Kaller, Jagpal Dehele and Ahmad Aliah, all brimming with ideas and energy.


Plating practice The first day of the event focused on microbiology, with Pav and Ben explaining the various microorganisms growing on microbiology plates, and also worms in tubes. We also had a supply of Petri dishes with agar, on which the youngsters could practice ‘plating out’. As the non-microbiology member of the day’s team, even I had a go! Every day we spoke to hundreds of


children and teachers. Pav and Ben explained how they culture a patient’s specimen on agar plates or in broth in order to grow a microbe, and then diagnose the disease. They talked about various diseases – tuberculosis (TB), Campylobacter, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) – and what can happen to a patient. We also scared a few of the youngsters into washing their hands after using the toilet, and also to wash their fruit and vegetables before eating them. In my years of public engagement, I know from experience that


Ben tells a group of teenage girls about tapeworm and how it can get into the body, which elicited a fairly typical response from each of them.


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The stuff a youngster’s dreams are made on, and difficult or even impossible to recreate in a classroom environment.


MAY 2016 THE BIOMEDICAL SCIENTIST


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