Our Events
Current / Upcoming Events
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Somerscience 2023
On Monday 1st May, we’ll be at the very first Somerscience festival in Castle Cary, Somerset!
We’ll be chatting to visitors about our plans for Exeter Science Centre, and running the Operation Earth show for families in the afternoon. Find out more about the event on the Somerscience website!
Past Events
What Gaia Means to us: Talks From Local Climate Scientists
In February 2023, we worked with the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute (GSI) to bring two evenings of climate science to Exeter Cathedral to celebrate Luke Jerram’s Gaia Earth artwork.
11 scientists working at the University of Exeter and Met Office gave an insight into their work on climate – both on Earth, and other planets. We loved their inspiring talks, and meeting over 370 visitors over the two evenings!
Find out more about the event on the Exeter Cathedral website here.
Operation Earth At the RAMM
We had a fantastic day running the Operation Earth show + hands-on activities at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum on 14th February!
Thanks to our amazing team of volunteers for all their help + for being such inspiring role models!
Sidmouth Science Festival 2022
The annual Super Science Saturday at Sidmouth Science Festival was on 8th October!
We had lots of visitors to our zone – trying hands-on activities from the Operation Earth Programme on the theme of Biodiversity and Earth Observation, and sharing what they’d like to see in a science centre building.
Thanks so much to our fantastic volunteers for helping us run this event!
Agile Rabbit: Popup Shop of Science and Culture 2022
We had a great time chatting to visitors at Agile Rabbit’s pop-up at Maketank on Saturday 1st October!
We had lots of leaves on our ideas tree, and doodles on our chalkboard tablecloth responding to ‘What’s your vision of Exeter Science Centre?’ – thanks to everyone who visited, and to our brilliant volunteer Ross for helping all day!
27th August 2022 – Exeter Library: Big Kids Takeover Day
We had a mini version of our climate pop up exhibition + performed the Operation Earth Family Show at this fantastic event – thanks to our amazing scientists from the University of Exeter’s Astrophysics group and Global Systems Institute for volunteering with us!
Photo (left-right): Regan, Raphaëlle, Federica, Natalie and Ross.
Dark Skies Week: Facebook Live with Dr Sam Morrell
It was Dark Skies Week from the 22nd-30th April 2022, and to celebrate it, we chatted to Dr Sam Morrell, an astrophysicist from the University of Exeter! Sam has recently joined a research team looking into how artificial light affects both humans and animals, and we learnt about his research and why people and nature need dark skies at night.
Check out our Knowledge Nibble post for more information and a link to the recording.
Climate Stories Gallery 2022
In the run-up to our Climate Observations-themed pop-up in March 2022, we ran a public Climate Stories Gallery. Each month had a different theme:
November 2021: Your climate stories
December 2021: Your vision of a positive future
January 2022: Resolutions for change
February 2022: What makes Earth special?
Check out the contributions here!
Pop-up Exhibition: March 2022
In British Science Week 2022, we ran our very first pop-up exhibition at Maketank in Exeter city centre! The exhibition was created with artists and scientists on the theme of understanding the climate on Earth and other planets.
Check out our event page here to experience the exhibition yourself – virtually!
Festival of Physics – November 2021
We so enjoyed meeting lots of people at the IOP Festival of Physics, hosted at the University of Exeter in November.
It was great to chat to people about their ideas for the Science Centre and share some exciting physics research on using physics to improve cancer detection methods.
Links to a Life “Henrietta Leavitt Day”- October 2021
We linked up with the wonderful Links to a Life team in October and went on tour to five schools across Devon.
Alice was the Science Lead on the project, introducing students from Year 9-11 to the work of astronomer Henrietta Leavitt (1868-1921). The students spent a fantastic day learning about measuring the size of the Universe then watched a brilliant biographical play telling of the life of Henrietta Leavitt.
Sidmouth Science Festival – October 2021
We had a fantastic day at the Sidmouth Science Festival chatting to people about the scientific method, what people would like to see in the Science Centre, battling antibiotic resistance and citizen science. So wonderful to talk to lots of people in person!
Images clockwise from top left: Natalie using mystery boxes to help people understand how science works; Alice, Natalie and our wonderful volunteer Tamzin; Dr Ben Temperton and his student Christian sharing their research on bacteriophages; Alice adding a leaf to our ideas tree!
Sustainable Earth 2021
On 25th June 2021 we spoke at the brilliant Sustainable Earth 2021 conference at the University of Plymouth. This event brought together researchers, businesses, public sector, community groups and individuals to tackle global and local challenges around the climate emergency. You can watch our presentation here!
School Workshops
We’ve been working with Biomedical Physicist Prof. Francesca Palombo and her team from the University of Exeter, to share their research with schools and the public. As part of this public engagement programme, we have been running schools workshops for Year 11-12 students. These workshops highlight the importance of multidisciplinary teams in solving real-world problems, help students to understand the relevance of biology and physics in real world applications and give the students the opportunity to talk to Biomedical Physicists.
The Great Conjunction 2020
On 21st December Jupiter and Saturn appeared closer in the sky than they had been for 400 years in an event called the Great Conjunction. Alongside the University of Exeter’s Astrophysics group, we livestreamed the event to thousands of people from across the world. You can view the livestream here. We also prepared some videos to explain what it was all about and how to observe it, which you can find here.
Image credit: Patrick Hendry on Unsplash
17-12-2020 COVID-19 Vaccine: Ask the Experts
On the Thursday 17th December at 7:30pm we hosted a live Q&A panel event with the Translational Research Exchange @ Exeter (TREE). This event gave the public an opportunity to ask their COVID-19 related questions to a panel of doctors and scientists from across the South West, with specialisms spanning the COVID-19 vaccine, virus, treatment and testing. The live recording is available here. The panel have also answered some of the questions that they did not have time to answer in the live session here, along with questions from school students here.
Image credit: Daniel Schludi on Unsplash.
17-11-2020 to 18-12-2020 Art of Science Gallery
We asked the public for submissions of Art that had been inspired by STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine). We got some incredible and diverse entries and they can all be viewed in our beautiful Art of Science Gallery. Thank you to everyone to took part!
09-10-2020 Global Science Show
Alice and Natalie were invited to contribute to the Global Science Show (GSS), a monthly event on Twitter featuring science communicators from across the world. This month, the contributions were from science centres in many different countries, run in association with the ASDC. You can read the GSS Twitter thread here, and watch our video contribution here!
11-05-2020 → 31-05-2020 Science as Art Gallery
During the COVID-19 lockdown, we ran our online Science as Art Gallery to celebrate the beautiful manifestations of “everyday science” in the Public Exhibition, and the fascinating range of research carried out in the South West for our Research Exhibition. Submissions were posted & discussed on social media, and you can view the gallery here!
04-12-2019 Tech Exeter Meetup
This was a busy evening! After the STEAMM Show at the Exeter School of Art, Natalie headed over to the Exeter Phoenix to speak to Tech enthusiasts about her background and the plans for the Science Centre. You can find the slides online here!
04-12-2019 ExIST STEAMM Show
A 5 minute, no-slides pitch of our idea to the public. Fantastic range of speakers and exhibitions, demonstrating how important it is for scientists and artists to work together to communicate their common goal: understanding the universe we find ourselves in.
12-10-2019 Sidmouth Science Festival
We love this festival – it’s an inspiring week of public events including talks and hands-on science demos. Natalie and Sarah had a stand in Kennaway House, speaking to visitors about our plans with some demos and a questionnaire.
17-09-2019 Exeter City Futures Connect Event: Skills and Capabilities
Our first public event! Natalie presented a 5 minute pitch on our idea to create the Exeter Science Centre.
