News

First Exeter Science Centre Pop-Up!

26th April 2022

Exeter Science Centre’s first ever pop-up exhibition, “Breaking the Ice” was a great success! We welcomed more than 1200 visitors over two weekends and had over 30 volunteers supporting us! Thank you so much to everyone that visited.

For two long weekends in British Science Week (March) 2022, we showcased an amazing exhibition in Maketank in Exeter, for people of all ages to meet the local scientists involved in some inspiring research, and get involved with our plans to make a STEAMM discovery centre in the city.

The exhibition was centred around climate modelling – which not only helps us to understand our own climate and how it is changing, but also the climates on other planets! With funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), we created the exhibition in collaboration with artists, astrophysicists and climate scientists at the University of Exeter and the Met Office, and with Space Youth Services.

Exeter is home to the largest number of meteorologists and climate change specialists in the UK, along with a world-leading astrophysics research department in exoplanet climates.

Through hands-on activities, out-of-this-world VR experiences, and chats with the exhibition Mediators, we took our visitors on a journey to explore current research into planetary climates, and to see how it fits into the bigger picture here on Earth.

Throughout the exhibition, we wanted to understand our visitors’ feelings about this pale blue dot called Earth. What makes it special? How can we better protect its inhabitants? As part of the event, we also launched our public consultation for the Exeter Science Centre building! We were delighted to read all the ideas and feedback displayed on our tree of ideas – and we’ll summarise these in our upcoming report.
To find out more about the exhibition, check out the resource page here.