Wednesday 9 July 2014

Big Bang At The Imperial War Museum

The Big Bang Fair Eastern took place at the Imperial war museum, Duxford on 8th July 2014. This event is part of several other Big Bang Fair near me events taking place across the country. The Eastern fair was organised by SETPOINT Hertfordshire, an educational charity whose aim is to inspire young people about Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).
Set among the historic displays of iconic aircrafts, military vehicles and artillery from the world war, the day made for a great exhibition and high impact education for the schools and visitors at the fair. There were over 80 schools from across the East of England displaying their projects for a chance to win a prize. School projects were very creative, of high standard and covered a wide range of STEM subjects. I’m pretty certain the Judges had a tough time identifying the best projects.

Prize categories include: The Open University Math prize, MBDA Engineering prize, CREST prize, Society of Biology-Biology prize, Royal Society of Chemistry-Chemistry prize, Institute of Physics-Physics prize, EEESTA-club showcase of 2014 prize, TTP Group-most creative/Innovative prize and the RES-sustainable prize. All the above offered winners of the various categories £200 and £50 to the runners up. The National science and engineering competition offered 15 places to the best projects at next year’s national big bang fair in March and a glass plaque. Young engineers for Britain offered £150 for the Duke of York regional award for creative use of technology and £75 each for the engineering excellence regional award and for the engineering ethos regional award. Johnson Matthey offered a special prize of £250 to the best STEM communicator awarded to an individual or team with an impressive STEM knowledge and enthusiasm.

Exhibitors at the fair did a great job catering for the enthusiasm of the school pupils and visitors at the fair with their hands of activities. The Society of Biology stand where I was volunteering on the day entertained guest with the fortune teller / matching pair game which forms part of the “Biology -Changing the world” project. The project aims to celebrate Biologist of the past and inspire those of the future. The fastest time on the matching pair game was recorded and entries went into a prize draw with the help of our giant dinosaur for the chance to win a giant microbe. Pupils got competitive and had lots of fun trying to beat the fastest time.
Fun with biologist
Did you know Richard Owen invented the word 'Dinosauria'?

On the whole, Big Bang Fair Eastern was entertaining, rewarding and educative. If you missed us this year, look out for the next big bang fair near you and make a date with STEM for big bang 2015.

A lesson on catalyrtic converters
The secret to wind turbines lies in materials and angles

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