Manchester,
26
April
2016
|
08:00
Europe/London
University festival brings science to life at the Trafford Centre
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Visitors to Manchester’s intu Trafford Centre were treated to a wide array of exciting activities last weekend, when students and experts from the University of Manchester descended on the complex to spread the word about science.
The #scienceX festival gave shoppers the chance to take a robot for a walk, hold a piece of the moon and land a plane in a flight simulator, amongst many other experiments and demonstrations. Staff and students from the University were on hand to help with the activities, and they hoped to spark interest in science and engineering in the minds of both young and older people by demonstrating that they are exciting and stimulating interesting topics to study.
The UK has a severe shortage of people with the relevant skills to work in scientific and engineering roles - a recent report suggested that we need to double the number of annual recruits to meet expected demand over the next few years - and the number of students going into higher education to study in these areas have been falling short of industry demands for many years.
The University of Manchester is embarking on a series of public events to mark the 2016 European City of Science, which offers a unique chance to showcase groundbreaking science and cutting-edge technology to people across Manchester - everyone will have lots of opportunities to take part in experiments, activities and conversations that bring science, technology and engineering to life.
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“It was great to spend the weekend at the Trafford Centre, showing curious minds of all ages that science and technology grow our understanding of the world we live in, and can solve some of the big problems we currently face. Universities can appear to be daunting places, and science and engineering may seem like intimidating subjects - I hope we managed to dispel these myths, by showing that there is a budding scientist or engineer in everyone. We hope to encourage young people and their families that a scientific or engineering career is possible for anyone, and can be extremely rewarding.”
Daniele Atkinson, Social Responsibility Manager
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The feedback received by the organisers was extremely positive. One child who took part in the activities remarked that “being able to convert kinetic energy into electricity was amazing’, and a set of parents said that the event was “fantastic stimulation for our kids imagination - and we loved it too!”