Our Events

Current / Upcoming Events

We’ll also be announcing the pubic events from the Operation Earth + We Are Guardians Tour and the Our World From Space Programme as soon as these are booked in!

Royal Institution (RI) Christmas Lectures Livestream 2023

We’re thrilled to be teaming up with Maketank to be a RI Christmas Lectures livestream venue for 2023! Find out more on our latest news post, and stay tuned for details about tickets.

Past Events

Climate Exhibition 2023

Our Climate Exhibition took place during the British Science Festival in Exeter this year and we loved being back at Maketank again!

We reimagined the exhibition based on consultations with community groups across Exeter and the region – check out the exhibition details and resources here.

Barnstaple Library: Operation Earth + We Are Guardians Tour

We’re touring our Operation Earth show, hands-on activities, and the award-winning We Are Guardians film around the South West this summer, and we loved meeting our honorary trainee environmental scientists in Barnstaple Library this time.

Stay tuned for more events in the next couple of months!

Exeter Cathedral Bioblitz 2023

We were at the first Exeter Cathedral Bioblitz on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd July!

Find out more about the event on the Exeter Cathedral website. We’re touring our Operation Earth show, hands-on activities, and the award-winning We Are Guardians film around the South West this summer thanks to the Adrian Swire Charitable Trust (more info here) – check back here for more event updates.

Exoclimes 2023

We organised a set of lightning talks at Exeter Guildhall Shopping Centre to celebrate some out-of-this world research! We had 19 Astrophysicists taking part from research institutions across the world, who attended the Exoclimes conference hosted in Exeter this year.

To watch the videos and find out more about the speakers and extra resources, check out the event page here.

Sidmouth Biodiversity Festival

We brought the Operation Earth show + activities, along with the award-winning film We Are Guardians (in VR) to the first ever Sidmouth Biodiversity Festival!

Couldn’t make it? Don’t worry, we’re touring this event to selected schools, communities and public events thanks to the generous support of the Adrian Swire Charitable Trust (more info on our news page) – so stay tuned!

AI and ChatGPT Livestreams

On two evenings in May 2023, we organised a Q&A mini-series about artificial intelligence (AI) and the recently-developed AI chatbot, ChatGPT. We had some really wide-ranging discussions about the implications of AI for individuals and society, as well as exploring how these technologies are being developed and regulated.

You can re-watch the first livestream with Michelle Bieger here, and the second with Roger Taylor here.

We’re hoping to do a follow-up experiment with ChatGPT in the coming weeks, subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified!

Somerscience 2023

On Monday 1st May, we had a stand at the very first Somerscience festival in Castle Cary, Somerset!

We had a fantastic day speaking to nearly 500 visitors, with the Operation Earth family show and a set of tabletop activities, including a microscopic moss and soil safari, guessing what’s in the mystery boxes, making wildflower seed plant pots and doodling on our tablecloth mural – where we asked visitors what they’d like to see in a science centre.

Thanks to our brilliant volunteers Owain, Ellie and Fede for their help throughout the day – Fede took part in ‘I’m a Scientist – Get me out of here’ too!

Find out more about the event on the Somerscience website.

The Great Imagining: Exeter, April 2023

We co-designed a rapid-response pop-up event on 22nd-23rd April at the Climate Action Hub in Exeter, alongside Kate Jago (project lead) and Melissa Fayad (Schumacher College) to create this event with support from The House of Fairytales.

It was a fantastic event filled with science, VR, imagining and craftivism, all on the theme of forests + rivers, explored from a beetle’s eye view.

This was one of 5 of The Great Imagining’s Earth Day Activations that took place across the UK and in Kampala, Uganda – follow The Great Imagining for updates on follow-up events!

RAMM Lates – 21st April 2023

We had a fantastic time at the RAMM Lates event on Friday 21st April!

We gave a taster of our upcoming exhibition in September and chatted about our plans for the science centre – great to have so much enthusiasm for our plans!

Keep an eye on future RAMM Lates events here: https://rammuseum.org.uk/whats-on/ramm-lates/

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!

Click here to view the Gallery!

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.