Staff and students showcase the power of science at interactive research festival

A team of GCU staff and students had the opportunity to share their knowledge with the younger generation, as part of an interactive research festival in Glasgow.

Students, staff and researchers from Glasgow Caledonian University came together at the annual Explorathon Extravaganza; a Scotland-wide festival designed to showcase the research of Scottish universities.

This year, the festival took place on September 22-23 in the University of Glasgow’s ARC (Advanced Research Facility) as part of Glasgow’s Door Open Days.

The event, which is free to attend, invites people of all ages to engage with interactive workshops and displays from different university teams. The aim of the event is to ‘Make Research Real’ and highlight the opportunities that research can create.

Volunteers on the day included students and staff from the Forensic Investigation programme, who hosted an interactive crime scene activity. Attendees had the opportunity to practice fingerprint analysis and chromatography, learning about how these methods are used in crime scene investigations.

Helping volunteer at the festival were students Kirsten Traynor, Aspen Milledge, Rachel McClung, Gillian Hunter and Huma Nawaz.

Having benefited from similar events growing up, students Kirsten and Aspen decided to volunteer for the festival to help give something back to the younger generation.

Kirsten explained: “I really enjoyed my course and thought it was so interesting, but I think it’s really important to give something back to the younger generation and introduce them to the different sides of science. Activities like this are great and it shows the fun side of what I do, but it’s a great way for them to learn.

I love speaking to the public and teaching them about what I do, so what better way to spend a Saturday than doing something like this!”

Aspen, who had the chance to engage with STEM awareness events as a child, understood the importance of sharing your knowledge and how beneficial it can be to a young person. She said: “Growing up, I went to a lot of STEM camps and events like this. Thanks to those experiences, I learned that there was a possibility of going into science; especially as a girl from an area that I was from. Going to these events and finding out how exciting science was really made me realise the different options of what I could do within it.

One of the big things I remember when I went to the STEM camp was getting to extract DNA from strawberries. That is one of my fondest memories and I still have the photograph that I took at the time wearing my lab coat. I remember at the time thinking ‘This is what I want to do’. I always knew I wanted to work within science, but this was the moment where I truly knew.”

She added: “Experiences like this show that you’re flexible and that you’re able to explain complicate concepts in a simple way. A great mark of a scientist is how you can communicate to both adults and children. If you can explain a concept to any person, any age and of any level of experience; that makes you a good scientist.”

By Rachael McAlonan

Got a SCEBE or GSBS story? Email me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on social media here