Swansea Science Festival 2021
Swansea Science Festival 2021 saw the return of in-person events at the National Waterfront Museum and Oriel Science, combined with a selection of online offerings on the 23rd and 24th of October 2021. Staff and Students from the Materials Science and Engineering department have been involved with Swansea Science Festival since its beginnings as a result of Swansea hosting the highly successfully hosted the British Science Festival in 2016 and it’s fantastic to see the festival continuing, with the support of Swansea University.
This year, the Materials department organised a Webinar, titled “Investigating the Invisible World”, where Dr Mark Coleman, a senior lecturer in metallurgy gave participants a virtual insight into the microscopic world of Scanning Electron Microscopy. During the session, Mark successfully encouraged the audience to engage with the session by guessing what the objects were they were seeing – there are a few examples below for you to try and identify! (Answers at the bottom of this post).
Additionally, Zoë Powell Best delivered an in-person workshop at the Oriel Science venue in Swansea City centre, assisted by volunteer staff and students from the Materials department, as part of her volunteer role as a Discover Materials Ambassador. Participants investigated a range of biomaterials properties, including smell, feel, sound, strength and toughness. The materials tested were made from a variety of ingredients including:
Coffee grounds
Seaweed
Orange peel
Gelatine
Spirulina
Mycelium
Overall both events were very successful, thanks to the staff and volunteers who gave up their time to help run these sessions over the weekend. It was great to be back delivering in-person sessions and at the same time continue to offer virtual events to a wider audience.
If you’re looking for some Materials Science and Engineering activities to try this Halloween, sign up to Discover Materials this Halloween for some spooky-themed experiments and online content 🎃.
The Materials Science and Engineering department at Swansea University are a key player in promoting and raising awareness of Materials Engineering to school and community groups of all ages within the local South & West Wales area. Previous activities have range from running interactive stands for families at Science Festivals to organising curriculum-aligned workshops for GCSE and A-level pupils, and more recently engaging students with microscopy and SEM via virtual Webinars. Over the last year the group have contributed to more than 25 events, engaging over 1000 participants. If you are interesting in finding out more, or arranging a session with us, please contact Becky (r.k.waldram@swansea.ac.uk).
Guess the object answers:
Image 1 - Bamboo
Image 2 - Fracture surface of copper
Image 3 - Ladybird wing
Image 4 - Moth eye
Image 5 - Moth leg
Image 6 - Salt
Image 7 - Sand
Image 8 - Snakeskin
Image 9 - Washing-up sponge
