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From the Slime to the Riddikulus – Science of Magic evening enchants and entertains

Thursday 13th December 2018

For those quick enough to ‘Accio‘ a hot ticket, sixty Harry Potter enthusiasts jumped on their Nimbus 2000s, dockless bikes or the park and ride – and descended on Oxford Centre for Innovation, magically transformed from it’s daytime illusion of a busy hub for muggle start-ups to an afterdark Hogwarts-inspired lab set up to investigate the science of magic, all with one wave of an L.E.D circuit lumos wand.

Alastor Moody, (AKA Programme Officer Rowena ‘My eye’s popping out already’ Fletcher), along with Moaning Myrtle, (Programme Manager Luiza ‘You’re welcome to share my toilet’ Patorski) and a Snape-turned-cocktail alchemist in a flowing cape welcomed the wannabe witches and wizards with a Sorting ceremony and Potions lesson – a cool colour-changing elderflower cocktail that smoked when you added the magic ingredient (not the alcohol, Dry Ice!).

Lessons included wand-making Transfiguration class, where students showed that they knew their electrons from their elbows….

Hilarity all round at the Defence Against The Dark Arts where we tackled troll bogeys (made slime) and, let’s admit it, got it everywhere..

At Divination class we unlocked the code to create a micro:bit fortune teller

In flavour-mixing Herbology, we created some very weird concoctions to test how the senses are affected by taste, colour, touch and smell.

A scramble to find Hagrid’s missing Fantastic Beasts eggs In the History of Magic hunt..

And Daily Prophet newsflash – ‘History of Magic’ Quiz results just in! Gryffindor won with total score of 53.5 points but Ravenclaw & Slytherin averaged a higher score per paper, Slytherin averaging the best at 69% and sadly no Hufflepuffs completed the quiz.. (say no more..)

Charms class with Sophie where wand duelling got highly charged with Fun Fly Sticks, tiny electrostatic generators that create repelling charges making the foil shape float!

If you ever dreamed of receiving that Hogwarts letter, (an invitation by Owl Post, rather than a Howler – the magical equivalent of being TOLD OFF IN CAPS) keep your Alastor Moody one-eye open by joining our mailing list or checking the website, as we’ll be further investigating the science of magic in 2019… could it be you?

“It was silly (in a good way)! Everything incorporated magic! We liked the interactivity like making wands, slime, and making things fly! Thank you for a fun night!”