Outreach activities from the department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology

Creative Science Workshops in primary schools

During 2010/11 we developed and delivered engaging science workshops aimed at primary school pupils. Our workshops have covered a wide range of topics, using a mixture of hands-on activities, games and creative approaches, as well as ethical debates, aimed at bringing contemporary research into the classroom. Some of the workshops were run in collaboration with artists from Art in the Park, enabling us to combine the science with artworks and short dramas. The photo below shows a primary school pupil demonstrating a purpose-designed bug.

PhD students from our department deliver these exciting workshops, sharing their passion for research with young people, bringing science alive and helping to dispel the myth of the ‘crazy scientist’. The workshops are ideal opportunities for PhD students to develop their communications skills and to engage diverse audiences, as shown below.

If you are interested in having Creative Science Workshops delivered in your school, please contact Dr Sandrine Soubes, s.soubes@sheffield.ac.uk.

Synthetic Stories project

Synthetic Biology is a lively recent research field, aimed at manipulating biological systems to make useful products. We have explored this theme in collaboration with the theatre company the Babbling Vagabonds, ably led by Dr Sandrine Soubes. Part of this collaboration included a public engagement event with performance of new theatre at the Sheffield Café Scientifique in November 2010.

Strawberries

Science Brainwaves have helped develop a number of entertaining and engaging activities, including the ever-popular ‘extract DNA from strawberries’, shown in the photo, and in the video clip link below.

www.sciencebrainwaves.com/blogs/brainwaves/post/Video-Strawberry-DNA-Extraction.aspx