The first meeting of the North West Science Alliance in 2023
Lucinda Lewis welcomed everyone to Catalyst Science Discovery Centre and Museum which has gone through extensive refurbishment over recent years. The centre has recently been awarded a National Lottery Heritage Fund Grant to refurbish The Birth of an Industry Gallery which tells the story of the chemical industry up to the 1940’s. As well as the excellent work with schools, we heard about catalyst kits distributed through lockdown, the toddler group engaging kids with science, and the multi-award winning project MindLab. Catalyst have partnered with the mental health charity Mind Halton to explore alternative ways to support people living with mental health conditions. The project covers topics such as anxiety, resilience and well-being in a Covid-19 world. Participants take part in group counselling led by a qualified counsellor from Mind Halton before undertaking a variety of STEM activities led by Catalyst staff.
Graham Perrin from the Institute of Physics (IOP) explained how the institute has changed its approach to promoting physics by seeking to influence the influencers to increase its reach. The North West ranks third in terms of the number of physics related jobs with a significant proportion of those being non graduate jobs. Through the Limit Less campaign, the IOP wants to support young people to change the world and fulfil their potential by doing physics. Please sign up to the manifesto today so that we can show our politicians that there is widespread support for improving equity and inclusion across the education sector. He also explained how societies view of physics can influence children dampening their enthusiasm for science and how media should stop referring to scientists as boffins… scientists are normal people just like you!
Phill Day gave us an overview of the exciting events planned for the Open Week at Daresbury Laboratory on 10th-15th July. There will be hundreds of hand on activities and opportunities to speak to scientists about their work. Schools will be invited into the lab over the course of the week before it is opened up to the public for a family day on the 15th July. There will be a Wonder Marquee promoting science related job opportunities if organisation are interested in exhibiting they should contact Phill.
Unfortunately Mohammed Rahman wasn’t able to join us to tell us about the amazing work he has been doing in Rochdale to engage the community in science. Melissa and Stephen stepped in to tell us about the Sunday STEM clubs he set up and the Rochdale Science Extravaganza planned for 19th March which this year is themed around climate change and sustainability. Hopefully we will get to meet Mohammad at a future meeting to find out more about his work and the buzz he is creating in the community about science.
Thank you to all the speakers for their insights.
Thank you also to Lorelly Wilson for organising the meeting, Catalyst for hosting the meeting and BASF for the buffet.
The next NWSA meeting will be at Xplore Science Discovery Centre in Wrexham.