A family-friendly science festival for older secondary school children.
This year's festival will be on 24 June 2024. The festival will be virtual in format.
For more information watch this space!
Barts and Queen Mary Science Festival is a science festival for secondary schools.
In recent years, the festival has focused on older secondary school children interested in a science and medicine career.
Started in 2011 for several years the festival was held at Charterhouse Square and then for many years in the Octagon building situated on Queen Mary University of London’s Mile End campus.
Throughout the entire time the festival has been running it has been supported not only by staff and students but by numerous volunteers including local public and patient advisory group members.
For two years during the Covid Pandemic the festival was held in virtual format, with online talks supplemented by fun science themed activities listed on this festival website.
The 2023 Festival was held recently in person at Charterhouse Square with updated science themed activities available on the website. A report on the festival can be found at here.
Couldn’t make this year’s live festival? Browse our exciting website activities below.
Barts and Queen Mary Science Festival 2023
The 2023 Festival was held in person at Charterhouse Square with updated science themed activities available on the website. A report on the festival can be found here.
Activities
Bioinformatician poster Careers in perspective - Bioinformatician [PDF 148KB]
BioResource posterBarts BioResource Poster [PDF 293KB]
Cardiac Screening and Defibrillators for Schools www.tobe-heartsafe.org.uk
CHILL PackCHILL pack 2023 [6,253KB]
Community SmilesCommunity Smiles [DOC 1,385KB]
Family clinical history takingVisit TrialsConnect for more information
Centre of the CellLike science? Want to know about some fun educational activities you can do at home? Find out more about Centre of the Cell
CHILL Pack
Clinical Careers Flipbook
DashboardThis dashboard was implemented using a web-based programming environment known as a Jupyter Notebook. You can learn more about Notebooks from this video.
This github repository (featured in the video) contains instructions for creating a simple Covid dashboard based on Public Health England data. The materials are aimed at students with an intermediate understanding of Python (up to objects), and can form the basis for a guided hackathon - teacher guidance is likely required to help with implementation and deployment as a Binder. Visit the DIY Covid-19 Dashboard Kit.
Here is a simple dashboard built based on this tutorial (please be patient while the binder starts).
An entirely Jupyter-based Python module for new starters, taught at Queen Mary University of London.
The Jupyter project, home of Notebooks and the Jupyter Lab.Binders are an incredibly flexible and accessible way to deploy your (and your students') Notebooks online for free.
DFN Project Search
Posters
Heart talks
Human Error and Medical Device Design
If you would like any further information about Rheumatoid Arthritis, please see the following links:
The 2021 festival featured short live virtual talks as well as fun website activities.Barts and QM Science Festival Programme 2021 [DOC 17KB]
Welcome video by Professor Sir Mark Caulfield:
Couldn't make the live talks? Browse our exciting website activities below.
A Sticky Business: Who funds Science Research?
Barts Charity Information Pack
Barts BioResource
Beat your Heart Game
Game instructions: use the left/right arrow keys on your keyboard to get the heart running, space-bar to jump.
Centre of the Cell
Dashboard
This dashboard was implemented using a web-based programming environment known as a Jupyter Notebook. You can learn more about Notebooks from this video.
Poster: What I wish my younger self knew about mental health
Rheumatology video
Researchers from the department of Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology are delighted to be participating in the 2021 Barts Science Festival. Highlighting their work on Rheumatoid Arthritis, they aim to improve your understanding of immune mediated diseases and how they are working to improve future treatment of the disease. The video illustrates the way patients are managed currently and the researchers’ vision for the future. We hope you learn from the video, so after watching it please take the quiz.
Robot video
Our robot ALICE will show you about how machines learn using lots of data. Scientists use data to develop new ideas and computers help them to do it faster.
Sorting: How quickly can you sort cats and other animals. Do you think a computer can do it quicker? Visit: https://www.menti.com/gfufrpbj3e
How do computers learn?
Machine learning is linked to Artificial Intelligence. This is where we give machines data and they use it to learn for themselves. Computers can then perform a task without explicitly being programmed to do so.
The data that is provided to the computer includes parameters or labels. We also give it an algorithm (which is a set of instructions: like a thought process) and it uses both the data and the algorithm to teach itself.
Normally, we give computers explicit instructions which it cannot ignore. The machine only knows to do one action in response to another action. An example is: you press the S key on the keyboard and the computer types an S.
When we give a machine an algorithm it can learn to decide what to do with the data to get to our end goal. Like knowing if the picture is a cat or not.
Scientists have moved beyond using pictures of cats. Now, amongst other things, they are using computers to look at pictures of our bodies called scans. Computers are learning to do this very well and they are becoming a useful tool for doctors to understand problems with our body like diseases and health conditions.
Links:
Smart Health Magazine
On 19th June 2019 schools across London attended the ninth edition of the festival, speakers were Dr Mohammed Khanji (Barts Health Trust), Dr Christopher Primus (Queen Mary) and Centre of the Cell. Exhibitors included Community Smiles (Dentistry), Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre and Barts Bioresource. Read a full report here.
Want to know what Moorfields thought of the festival? Read the article here.
On 20th June 2018 students from schools across London attended the eighth edition of the festival which was supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Barts Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), the NHS Trust and Trials Connect. Exhibitions at the festival included a peak flow meter where visitors could test their lung capacity, a stand measuring heart size and a knitted retina.
On 21st June 2017 students from schools across London attended the seventh edition of the festival which was supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Barts Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), the NHS Trust and Trials Connect. Exhibitors at the festival included Let’s Talk Hearts (free heart talks for the general public supported by the BRC), the Centre of the Cell, Bart’s Health Trust, Sports and Exercise Medicine (QMUL) and the UCL Centre for Adolescent Rheumatology.Students joined in on visual and hands-on demonstrations of how some brainpower cells (mitochondria) work and how ultrasound is used to diagnose arthritis and see the ‘inside’ of our joints using medical equipment.
The 2016 festival was supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Barts Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and Trials Connect and received a generous grant from the QMUL Alumni Annual Fund, which aims to provide additional funds for students and staff who wish to improve the student experience, encourage community engagement and promote academic achievement.
Exhibitors at the festival included Let’s Talk Hearts (free heart talks for the general public supported by NIHR Barts Biomedical Research Centre and the Farr Institute) with a demonstration on how to extract DNA from a banana, and Venture Thinking (the organization that supports Tim Peake the astronaut) using paper and straws to show what healthy bones look like.
Talks included a panel of volunteer patients from Trials Connect speaking about their experiences of taking part in a clinical trial. Trials Connect is an educational project in lifelong and shared learning. Inspired by the work of the it draws on the experience and professional expertise of current and previous clinical trials patients.