Fun Lab: a big hit at The Big Weekend!

Some had just wandered in to see what all the fuss was about, as children and adults queued to take part in the hands-on activities, while others had heard about the Fun Lab on the radio or read about it in the Cambridge News.

The event was part of The Big Weekend, a jam-packed three-day free festival hosted by Cambridge City Council. The University’s Public Engagement team, University Museums and the Sport department came together with the Medical Research Council and Napp Pharmaceuticals for the Fun Lab to offer hands-on activities for all ages, from ‘make your own fossil’ and build a brain hat, to skull and skeleton snap.

The event also provided a taster for the Summer at the Museums activities, which invite visitors to explore the world and discover amazing things through the jam-packed programme of events starting on Saturday 20 July 2013 and ending Saturday 7 September 2013. For more details please see the full calendar of events:  http://www.cam.ac.uk/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/summer_at_the_museums_cal...

The ‘Future Fossils’ event by the Sedgwick Museum, which was run on the day by the University’s Public Engagement team, proved extremely popular. Over 250 people, including children, teenagers and adults, relished the opportunity to learn how fossils form at the same time as getting stuck in and creating their own, unique fossil imprint, which they could take away with them.

In reality, the process takes millions of years; in this version things were sped up considerably by using modelling clay and plaster-of-Paris. Some fossils were far from traditional and included imprints using Lego men, toy cars and plastic dinosaurs.

Visitors thoroughly enjoyed the event and the general consensus gleaned from the feedback forms was that it was a valuable learning opportunity. Some of the comments included: “Fossil making was absolutely brilliant – in fact, all of it was good, dress up photos, skulls, chromatography…” “Loved making a fossil and testing one’s heart rate on a bike. Everything was awesome!” “We liked making fossils and dressing up in funny clothes.”

One parent commented: “Just wanted to say how much fun the family had in the Fun Lab tent on Saturday. What a well organised, fun, appealing and informative event. THANK YOU! The fossil has pride of place on my daughter's windowsill. Having travelled the length of the events tents, I think yours stood out... There was a real buzz. We were repeatedly asked where we got the brain hats from.”

Other events in the Fun Lab marquee included wobble boards and a Batak wall from the Sport Department, which focused on sporting attributes such as balance and reaction time. An exercise bike also allowed adults and children to put themselves to the test and burn off some excess energy while their heart rate was monitored. Surprisingly, in spite of the high temperatures, this also proved popular.

The MRC Human Nutrition Research Unit put people’s taste buds to the test by offering blindfolded fruit tasting. Although this activity was for all ages, children loved taking part and it had the benefit of enticing them to try fruits they would not normally consider. Many parents left saying they were delighted that their children would now eat fruits they had always refused previously.

The University Museum of Zoology created the unique skull and skeleton snap, where real museum specimens were used in a matching game of skulls to their skeletons.

Sue Long, Festivals and Outreach Officer, who co-ordinated the event, said: “We had record numbers of people visiting the Fun Lab on Saturday and it was brilliant to see everyone having such a spectacular time, including our team of volunteers who loved every minute of it. The popularity of events such as the Fun lab really do prove that people enjoy having fun while learning.”

The Fun Lab was sponsored as part of ARM's support for The Big Weekend.

For more upcoming events from the University of Cambridge please visit http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/whatson/