Staffordshire University's Biological and Biomedical Sciences Department held their latest Big Biology Day on Saturday 12 October, and (from our perspective, at least) it was another resounding success. The range of activities; the enthusiasm of the staff and students, and the organisation and helpfulness of the volunteers all ensured that the event was once again the best educational "day out" event of the year.I took our 10-year-old and 3-year-old, with very different interests and preferences, and throughout the 2.5 hours we were there, they were both fully occupied throughout, typically doing very different things at the same time.
Our three-year-old's highlights were rescuing the fish from the plastic pollution in their fish tank, where we spent a good ten minutes - not just rescuing the fish but enjoying the explanation of plastic pollution (and the free chocolates too). in fact, he enjoyed the fishing so much that we had to go back and do it again. He also enjoyed excavating the human bones from the sand pit, and even - at a stretch - recognised that the bones he was digging up matched those on the skeleton next to it. 10-year-old daughter certainly enjoying matching the bones with the skeleton, and the volunteer on the stand was able to tell us the names of the bones, as we managed to see how the thigh bone fits into the pelvis.
Every corner of the science centre revealed something new, and we found a play-doh station set up almost underneath the staircase. Play-doh is a massive hit in our household (except when it gets into the carpet) and we spent 10 minutes making our own healthy sea creatures, before fishing (again) for ducks amongst the plastic solution, and rescuing sea creatures from a plastic quagmire (represented by spaghetti).
There were more strictly educational activities upstairs, where there was a lab full of microscopes set out. 10-year-old set herself in front of a microscope and started examining some insects; 3-year-old wanted to open the petri dishes to take a proper look at them :-/ Unfortunately we weren't able to stay too long here, but the facilities were very well laid out and we would certainly have stayed longer if we'd had the attention span for it!
Other highlights included making a cell from biscuits and sweets (this is a long-standing attraction and a definite winner), which 3-year-old did while 10-year-old enjoyed the adjacent stand - the all-new and very exciting virtual reality CPR training. The layout was ideally suited to us - the activities weren't grouped in any particular way (or maybe they were), and frequently led to activities for a 3-year-old being located directly next to activities suited to a 10-year-old. We were warmly welcomed by everyone we spoke to, and the enthusiasm of the staff certainly matched our excitement, so that everybody had a good time. Our thanks to the staff, students and volunteers of the Staffs Uni BioScience department - we had an amazing time; we're already looking forward to the invertebrates day in the spring, and next year's big biology day!
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