Menu
  • Potteries Science Festival

  • Mitchell Arts Centre

  • Potteries Science Festival

  • Burslem School of Art

  • Potteries Science Festival

  • Staffordshire University

  • Potteries Science Festival

  • Potteries Museum and Art Gallery

28th & 29th June, 2018

Our Vision



Calling people of all ages: the Potteries Science Festival is a collaboration between science enthusiasts and professionals looking to bring a WOW! factor to Stoke-on-Trent’s cultural landscape. We will showcase STEAM (science-technology-engineering-art-mathematics-medicine) events in the city and promote the appreciation of the sciences among learners of all backgrounds.

Our mission is to raise the aspirations and ambitions of our community, to inspire our children to enjoy their studies and to encourage the pursuit of ambitious STEAM careers in local schools.

This event is taking place in support of the SOS mental health support group which seeks to raise awareness of suicide among all communities including young people.


@SOS_Initiatives
#supportingsilenceofsuicide

More information » « Less information

Events

  • We Are The Alchemists

    Mitchell Arts Centre Evening Event
    close


    Background

    Alchemy is our theme for the evening: producing shiny new knowledge from within our messy world using paper and a pen. How do people do it?

    Scientific progress is probably fastest right now in the science of DNA where a global revolution is underway. There is still much we do not know, but advances in DNA science are changing everything, from medicine to forensic science, archeology, to anthropology and the understanding of our own pre-history. You name it, biology is changing so fast that there are no textbooks.

    So we now know about the close links between neanderthals and modern humans, to take one example, and we can watch antibiotic resistance evolve in real time.

    This is the kind of progress we are seeing, but is it all for the good?

    It can be: humans are re-engineering viruses, like measles, to fight cancer but, conversely, some governments are keen to weaponise DNA science.

    Our speakers will talk about all this and more. They'll discuss gambling, swearing, nanorobots and computer graphics. They'll use DNA analysis to show just how diverse a community of people we are, including the city of Stoke, but also how globally connected we are.

    Do come and ask a tough question, but please keep the heckles clean. We’ll be giving out free beer to help loosen the tongue.
  • STEM Sells

    Undergraduate competition
    close
    port5

    STEM Sells

    STEM Sells grand champion

    Do we have the next Brian Cox in our midst? Science Talks is a competition to find the most engaging and enthralling speaker from our local universities. Our competitors have been tasked with shining a light on amazing areas of Science to an audience of local school students.

    The winners from two heats will go forward to the final and will be crowned Science Talks grand champion.

  • Competitions

    Photography
    close

    Photography Competition


    Competition idea:
    Time-lapse photography using a mobile phone can be a nice way of illustrating scientific ideas: by taking multiple images and overlaying them, we can visualise how fast-moving objects change.

    Like here where, as the first picture shows, when a ball moves through the air pulled by Earth’s gravity it makes a curve that closely resembles the infamous quadratic equation!

    This shape, known as a parabola, has been known for centuries but only recently did Hawkeye make use of parabolae to help umpires in tennis and cricket.

    The second picture shows how a bouncing ball forms two different parabolae, one before and one after the bounce.

    To make an LBW decision in cricket, Hawkeye needs to use a very accurate representation of the bouncing ball that can be moving not far short of 100mph.

    Maybe you can take a time-lapse image of a water droplet hitting a sink full of water or of someone taking a penalty at a local football match?

    Scientific researchers have used the same idea to track a slow-moving object, tar in this case.

    The video shows a falling droplet of tar caught on camera that was put into position in 1944. Given our forthcoming competition closing date, we don’t recommend anyone performs this experiment.

    And ok, gravity doesn’t really pull, it’s a spacetime curvature geometric geodesic thing, but the term "pull" will do for now.
  • Workshops

    Royal Institution Masterclasses
    close

    Royal Institution Masterclasses

    Blueprint Robotics, Dr Ben Dornan of the Royal Institution and Professor Robert Beardmore of the University of Exeter will be hosting coding events in the month of June at Stoke Sixth Form College.

    Students will be able to write Python codes to control a robot and flying drones. They’ll also have the chance to design and make their own robot in the Spode maker studio that Blueprint Robotics and the University of Exeter cohabit.

  • STEM Workshop

    Staffordshire University Science Centre, Stoke
    close
    STEM Worskhop
    All Stoke-on-Trent schools will each receive personalised invitations through their Higher Horizons link or Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College.

    STEM Workshop

    A hands on opportunity to see how scientists operate and the diverse nature of STEM education pathways. There will be over 10 workshops running concurrently, including guided journeys into space, using coding to solve everyday problems, visits to a murder seen, and birthing robots! …… plus much more.


  • Secondary school

    STEAM careers fair and workshops
    BSOA, Burslem


    close
    port8

    Contact shall4@trenthamacademy.co.uk for further details.

    Secondary school

    STEAM careers fair and workshops

    A series of talks and careers fair for students in year 10 who will explore the opportunities for STEAM careers. We have speakers from engineering companies, robotics start-ups, biotechnology industry, pharmaceutical industry and many more. There will be a series of hands on workshops for students including crash test physics, robotics workshops and talks on rocket science, being a pharmacist as well as Higher Horizons sessions from academics on ‘Flies and sticky tape’, Forensic science and the Physics of flight.

  • STEM Expo

    Staffordshire University Science Centre, Stoke
    close

    STEM Expo

    An opportunity for learners and the wider community to meet active scientists from the Potteries and afar. It’s a chance to chat, inspire and celebrate our combined passion for STEM, hopefully providing a stimulus for our future scientists, encouraging them to purse their dream STEM career.


  • Primary School

    Workshops
    BSOA, Burslem


    close

    Primary School workshops

    A series of workshops for all of our budding Little Einstein’s ready to get their hands dirty and learn about the world around them. We have sessions where children will test for vitamin C, create marble rollercoasters, learn the basics of coding, extract DNA and lots of other fun activities.


    Keele Primary Rocket Science day

    A hands on day of Rocket Science for Primary school students to attend contact Kris via email at w4a89@students.keele.ac.uk



Competitions

 

 
Entries from nominated teachers in schools to: potteriessciencefestival@gmail.com

Save the date:
School events for Primary and Secondary students are taking place during the Potteries Science Festival.

If you would like to bring groups of students to our hands-on workshops, career talks and science activities, register early interest via the above email or at shall4@trenthamacademy.co.uk
Science Photographer
Science writer
Scientists of the Year
School Engineer
Design a Robot
Short Science Film
Poetry
Create an App

Find Us

The festival events will run at the below locations.
Click the maps for further details.

Staffordshire University

Staffordshire University’s Science Centre
Stoke, ST4 2DE

Burslem School of Art

Burlslem, ST6 3EJ

Potteries Museum and Art Gallery

Hanley, ST1 3DW

Mitchell Arts Centre

Hanley, ST1 4HG

Partners

  • Straffordshire University

  • City of Stoke-On-Trent

  • Keele University

  • Higher Horizons

  • Sixth Form College

  • University of Exeter

  • Sascal

  • Wave maker

Contact Us

Please use the contact box below if you have general enquiries or would like to be involved or have any community event ideas for the festival.

  • Submit

For further details on specific events please contact:


BSOA Events
Steve Hall: SHall4@trenthamacademy.co.uk
STEM EXPO and Workshop Event
Mark Parton: mark.parton@stokesfc.ac.uk
Potteries Science Festival Evening Event
Ben McManus: ben@wavemaker.org.uk
Robert Beardmore: r.e.beardmore@exeter.ac.uk