Roll up, Roll up, roll up! For the Peterborough STEM Festival 2017…. at the Allia Business Centre from 9.30am-4pm today – great for children and adults alike.
Outside we have Anglian Water sponsor stand explaining about water in the outside of your home… there’s a watering game to play, puzzles to crack and the making of clouds. Some good attempts were made at cloud creating – armed with a plastic bottle, hot water and matches! Pop down to see how it’s done. You can also pick up your very own gardening packs with ideas for saving by water in the garden area.. it includes the genius idea of plant pot mats and also gels.
CHAoS (Cambridge Hands-on Science) are here showing off some amazing stuff. Explosions, card tricks with the science of numbers, creating your hand from straws and threads, infra-red lights etc. Meet Matthew, Ben and Tom as they surprise you science including a science explosion with lemon juice and bicarbonate of soda. (P.s. DON’T do this at home!)
Outside… engines generating power for lightbulbs. Inside you will find Thinking Outside the Box – Escape Rooms and their treasure hunt game for the kids to complete by visiting around the festival… will you win?
Matthew and Maria are here from Hereward Community Radio showing wannabes how to create their own jingles for radio advertising. They participate in visiting schools and colleges to educate the working behind the station with their media advertising. It’s easier than think… why not have a try?
BGL Group are here to show you how software can create soooo many things…They are currently looking for software engineers to join them and even have a student graduate scheme. See Ryan here, from Sheffield Hallam uni, he has been with the company for 12 months now and loves every minute. You can be shown how to conduct electricity through you! With the aid of some foil, some connectors and guess what…. some bananas! and when it’s all put together you can even play the piano! BGL are sponsors and are a multiple of companies, some based in good old Peterborough and are responsible for www.comparethemarket.com – you can meet Sergei and Aleksandr (in stuffed toy firm of course!)
Go back to your youth or jump right into the future:
University Centre Peterborough – UCP are showing off their old gaming skills with plenty of old favourites consoles like super Nintendo Mario. Here you can see Barts, aged 11, playing and having a great time even though at home he likes computing and plays on the Xbox. Mario seems to be a firm favourite.
Riselabs spring right in the other direction with their virtual reality area where you can walk among the skyscrapers of New York Manhattan. You can stroll around Florence in Italy. You can drive across the golden gate bridge in the USA. You can basically go anywhere you want on earth.
And then we take one big step into robotics with Greater Peterborough UTC. Let me introduce you to Pepper she is your friendly robotic aid, she can walk, talk, show you films and basically the idea behind her is that she would be a companion for the elderly ( great idea) and don’t forget to meet Pip her little brother. UTC are sponsored by Anglian water, Perkins engines and Larkfleet homes. They have students on campus completing a full time day from 9-5pm which means that they are learning 3 years content in 2 years! It’s about engineering and the built environment which includes at robotics programme. Ayisha will be glad to speak to all Year 10- year 14 who are interested in programming, engineering and robotics. They are based at the regional college campus on Park Road and they will soon be having an open day where you can see everything in action.
It’s basically all going on with other volunteers: Froglife exhibiting about the environment. Coding workshops, a rocket club, Curious Matter with their wall planet light, the British Army in their combat uniform building kinex vehicles and the lads in blue from RAF Wittering showing how to be an engineer with some ‘rivetting’ info on ultrasonic technology and rivet hitting for aircraft repairs.
There was plenty for everyone.
