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Over 30,000 Dice rolled as Oxfordshire Science Festival kicks off at Templars Square Shopping Centre

January 27, 2004

The Oxford Trust's 13th Science Festival started last Saturday with a range of free, fun, hands-on science and maths activities as part of a "Science Shop" set up in Templars Square Shopping Centre, Cowley. From dice rolling to interactive workshops there was something for everyone to try out.

Anne Lechelle, the Oxfordshire Science Festival Co-ordinator, says, "The Festival got off to a cracking start at Templars Square Shopping Centre. To mark the fact that this is the 13th Festival, there is an experiment called Million Dice Roll that encourages participants at every event, as well as schools across Oxfordshire, to try their luck at seeing how many sixes they can get from rolling 10 dice. They feed the results into the Festival website www.oxtrust.org.uk/festival The Science Shop event attracted hundreds of shoppers and their children - over 30,000 dice were rolled by people of all ages."

Participants in the Science Shop included the Oxford Urban Wildlife Group, with their 'Wildlife Challenge' feely boxes and quizzes, and UKAEA with their interactive hands-on Fusion Road Show. Sharp Laboratories of Europe, Sponsor of the Science Shop, offered some hands-on technology demonstrations including a demo of the game Quake in real 3D. Expert science presenters from The Oxford Trust were also performing their favourite experiments and offering a wide variety of hands-on maths activities in the form of games, puzzles and mind teasers.

Another main event for the public in the first week of the festival is on 29 January at 6pm at The Cherwell School North Site. Organised in partnership with the Royal Institution, Dr Martin Westwell will present his fantastic lecture 'Chemical Weapons' exploring some of the ways that chemistry may be used as a weapon. He considers the chemicals farmers use to control pests and also looks at chemical weapons used by plants, animals and insects.

Over 70 A level Science and Maths students will take part in the 'Royal Navy Engineering Challenge' at Faringdon Community College where they will be designing an amphibious vehicle capable of retrieving floating debris from the surface of the water.

The local business community is very much involved in the Festival with a number of companies sponsoring events. On 28 January at the Madgalen Centre of the Oxford Science Park the business community will have the opportunity to hear about 'Risk in Business', organised by The Research and Science Based Industry Group (RESBIG).

Oxford University Botanic Garden, one of the partners of the Oxfordshire Science Festival, will be organising an activity for children and their families to find out how plants are used in people's lives in 'The Rainforest House' on Saturday 31 January. The Oxford Trust's hands on Science Exhibition, Curioxity - based in the Old Fire Station, will be free all day on Sunday 1 February from 10am to 4pm.

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