Big Science Event is back
Friday 3rd May 2019
From May 7th the Science Oxford team and experts from education, business and science engagement will be heading out to primary schools across Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire to meet pupils involved in the Big Science Event 2019 and judge their presentations.
The Big Science Event is a competition for primary school pupils which encourages them to have fun with science while learning about the experimental process at the same time.
Class groups are challenged to create their own science experiment or investigation, and present their findings to a panel of judges. The experiment can be on any topic and previous entries have included ‘What makes snails move?’ and ‘How much air does it take to pop a banana?’
During the judging phase of the competition, the top groups from each school will present their experiments and findings to the judges and the winning group will go on to the county finals, which takes place at our new Science Oxford Centre in Oxford on 4th and 5th July.
The Big Science Event was created by Science Oxford back in 2012 and is sponsored by organisations such as Playforce, Abbott Diabetes Care and new supporter Diamond Light Source. In 2018, over 11,000 pupils from 80 schools across Oxon and Bucks took part in the competition. This year that figure has gone up to 91 schools and over 12,000 children.
Sophie Batin, our education and family outreach manager, says, “We love doing the cluster judging at its our first chance to see what this year’s school groups have come up with in terms of their experiments. We’re always surprised by the topics and ingenuity shown.”
She adds, “Playforce donates £1000 worth of school play equipment to each of our winning schools (in Oxon and Bucks) and we know that such an amazing prize provides a great incentive for the children involved.”
The schools who reached the county finals will be announced in early June.
