On Tuesday 30 July a team of volunteers set up a range of family-friendly activities in University Parks at the 2024 Science in the Park event. We estimate that around 300 visitors of all ages attended, turning up and enthusiastically taking part in activities despite the hot weather.
Aimed primarily at children, DPAG and other University of Oxford scientists were on hand to answer questions and share fun facts. The whole event (which also included a Microscopy table in the Museum of Natural History) was hugely popular, with families joining in at a steady pace all day from 10am-3pm.
Science in the Park is an initiative run by DPAG’s Outreach and Public Engagement Working Group (OPEWG), working this year in collaboration with representatives from the Centre for Medicines Discovery (CMD), The Alzheimer’s Research UK Oxford Drug Discovery Institute (ODDI) and a team from the Kids with Occlusion therapy for Amblyopia (KOALA) Study. The volunteers comprised research scientists, anatomy teaching staff, graduate students and professional services staff.
The range of activities included making a brain hat, looking at anatomical heart models, identifying the contents of mystery boxes by their smell or sound, mirror drawing and a senses quiz. Hadas Sloin, who was demonstrating the brain hat activity said, 'It was delightful to see so many kids and parents excitedly engaging with our hands-on activities and learning about the fascinating intricacies of their hearts and brains.' Sarah Segal added 'It was a great experience; it was particularly lovely to see the shyer children light up and come out of their shell when getting engaged into the activity.'
Children loved collecting a sticker for each activity they completed and most stayed to visit every stand. When asked what he liked the best one child said ‘I liked EVERYTHING!’
The children had fun and the parents and caregivers really appreciated the learning aspect, both for themselves and the children. DPAG’s Sharmila Rajendran said, ‘I was talking about heart cavities as secret chambers and circulation as rivers. Nothing stopped the young 'minithinkers' from asking questions, even under the scorching sun.’ When leaving, one parent commented ‘that was awesome!'
CMD participants Donatella Di Rienzo, Dr Eleanor Williams, and Emma Kennedy organized a stand and a team of 17 volunteers. Emma said ‘thank you for a fantastic day’. The KOALA study team said ‘thank you for having us at the event- we really enjoyed it’.
A big thank you to the following people, who either volunteered for the event or contributed their time in other ways to make the day a success:
Ajantha Abey, Haron Avgana, Lea Ballenberger, Kevin Brand, Susann Bruche, Susanna Cooper, Louise Cotterell, Kiara Delos Santos, Artem Diuba, Ivan Douglas, Amber Foley, Daniel Heaton, Sean Hodgkins, Emma Hodgkins, Saiyma Iqbal, Catherine King, Jessica Moretti, Ritika Mukherji, Evgenia Ntaouka, Sharmila Rajendran, Christophe Ravaud, Andia Redpath, Yuliia Shevchuk, Sarah Sigal, Hannah Simm, Hadas Sloin, Darren Smith, Sam Snowdon, Lili Som, Mary Strevens, Sandra Tan, Hannah Unsworth, Kiri Walden.