Dates for 2008 Wrexham Science Festival announced

Over 9000 visitors attended events held as part of the Wrexham Science Festival this year and work is already underway in planning for the 2008 Festival. The announced dates for the Festival next year are Friday 7th- Saturday 15th March 2008, with Scientriffic the interactive science family day being the finale to next year’s Festival on Saturday 15th March.

Popular talks within the public programme organised by NEWI at last year’s Festival included talks on dinosaurs, lasers, killer whales, caving, animation and the interactive demonstration that was Cool Science. These were complemented with events for schools organised by Yale College, Careers Wales and Techniquest@NEWI.

Over 2000 people came to Scientriffic the science interactive family day this year where the winners of the schools radio competition was announced. The competition, which was organised by NEWI’s Communication Technology department with the aid of the Reaching Wider Reaching Higher Wales project, Hands On Science, involved over 50 pupils aged between 10 and 16 from schools in Denbighshire and Wrexham. The pupils were set the task of produce radio programmes on science related topics. These programmes were aired at Scientriffic by Calon FM, the community radio station based at NEWI. A winner was chosen from each school that participated.

The Festival also reached out to a business audience by events organised by Wrexham County Borough Council on Sustainability and for the first time in the Festival’s history a dedicated talk and exhibition was held for farmers in the community on ‘Farming for Food or Fuel?’.

Also a first for the Festival was the theme of the technology of animation with the North Wales School of Art and Design based at NEWI organising an animation exhibition which featured work by Mackinnon & Saunders (Corpse Bride, Mars Attacks) and characters from Cosgrove Hall Films (Bill and Ben) and HOT Animation (Bob the Builder, Pingu, Rubbadubbers). Two animation talks were also given to support this exhibition. The North Wales School of Art and Design also worked with pupils at Rhosddu Primary School to teach them about the workings of animation and help them to produce their own animation films, which were featured as part of the exhibition.

People attended the Wrexham Science Festival from throughout the county of Wrexham as well as its neighbouring counties of Cheshire, Wirral, Flintshire, Denbighshire and Conwy.

Helen James, a Director at NEWI and Chairperson of the Wrexham Science Festival Committee said “This year was a great Festival! I attended many of the talks and events and the Festival reached a mixed audience through its variety of events and has received a lot of positive feedback. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone who was involved in making the 2007 Wrexham Science Festival the success it was. A great addition to activities this year was the exhibition of the animation puppets and the fascinating presentations supporting them. People don't always see the science and technology in what they perceive as arts, crafts and design. Some of the most exciting technological developments are in these areas.”

The format of the 2008 Wrexham Science Festival will be in line with the Festival that took place this year with a programme of public events, Scientriffic, business events and events for schools. It is hoped that community events will also feature as a strong part of the programme.

“We are already starting to plan the events for March 2008” said Helen “there are lots of ideas coming forward for new events and speakers. We’d like to have more community events within the programme this year, so we’d love to hear suggestions from community groups in the area about any events they plan to hold during the Wrexham Science Festival.”

If you have any suggestions for events or if you are a community group that would like to host an event as part of next year’s Wrexham Science Festival please call 01978 293473. Alternatively if you would like to join the mailing list to receive a programme of events please call 01978 293473 or e-mail wideningaccess@newi.ac.uk with your postal address.