CoCoMAD2019
Science had a huge presence at Birmingham’s CoCoMAD festival for the third year in the row, thanks to a collaboration between a range of local organisations.
By Chris Hamlett
It is the first Saturday of July and through the music arts and dance of the annual CoCoMAD festival comes the deafening enthusiasm of scientists!! Since the RSC first awarded a group of local science communicators (BrumSciComm) an Outreach Small Grant to run a chemistry tent and busking activities at the CoCoMAD festival in 2017, science has been a staple of the festival. However, following a similar dose of science last year this year’s science activities were upgraded to an entire science field!
BrumSciComm teamed up with University of Birmingham's 'Research in the Heart of Brum', ChemBAM, Barber Institute and Lapworth Museum in addition to both ThinkTank and Mondelez to deliver more than fifteen stalls of outreach activities across a range of scientific disciplines for people of all ages.
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Periodic Table the University of Birmingham’s School of Chemistry and the School of Metallurgy and Materials showcased research into Li-ion batteries, demonstrated by a dinosaur and a game of Jenga (Prof Peter Slater and Prof Emma Kendrick’s groups), and recycling demonstrated by activities involving both waste separation (Dr Chris Hamlett, 'Discover Materials') and reuse of plastics (Prof Andrew Dove’s group).
In addition an RSC IYPT funding award was used to make a Periodic Table themed chill-out area consisting of elemental cushions, wooden periodic table, neon lighting and even some pots of elements for people to peruse at their leisure. The School of Chemistry from the University of Birmingham also attended with over 15 student and staff volunteers, from undergraduates to professors. They presented their "ChemBAM" experiments, including extraction of DNA from fruit, fragrance chemistry, chromatography, alginate slime and adapted Jenga sets to explain the workings of lithium ion batteries.
The activities were very well received, with one child challenging his mother’s appeals to go for lunch saying, "Mum, I want to go for pizza after doing some more science".
In total at least 2000 people visited the science field to see these activities, engage with our science busking activities and listen to the science talks ranging from nanomaterials (Dr Ilija Rasovic, University of Birmingham) to building a space base (Dr Ian Whitaker, Nottingham Trent University), green polymers (Dr Josh Worch, University of Birmingham) and even how microbes build biofilm fortresses (Ana Martins Pinto De Magalhaes, University of Birmingham).
Following the success of three years of science at CoCoMAD, weekly science clubs were run in the park during the school summer holiday (using much of the kit purchased from the three years of funding form the RSC) and monthly clubs run by local science enthusiasts are ensuring that the legacy of the initial RSC Small Outreach funding is going strong – roll on CoCoMAD2020.
A variety of organisations came together to make the science field at CoCoMAD2019 a success
Research in the Heart of Brum showcases outreach from scientific research groups from across University of Birmingham
Barber Institute of Fine Arts is the art gallery at University of Birmingham
Lapworth Museum is University of Birmingham’s museum of geology
ChemBAM – the outreach arm of the School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham
Discover Materials is a working group formed of academics from nine Materials Science and engineering departments to promote Materials Science and Engineering as a subject.
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