Nottingham Festival of Science and Curiousity 2026 magazine by LeftLion

Welcome to the Nottinghamshire Festival of Science and Curiosity 2026

We have a jam-packed festival full of wonderful opportunities to investigate, examine, experience and experiment with the world around us. FOSAC is always about being curious, asking questions, looking for answers, so make sure to join us to just do that at one of our many events across Nottinghamshire. We promise it will be lots of fun!

This year, our exciting programme will again have inspiring researchers and scientists running activities in school, libraries, parks, gardens, museums and community spaces across Nottinghamshire, focusing on everything from optics to engineering, conservation to chemistry, physics to forensics, and everything in between! Make sure you drop into our daily Science Fun Days to try out lots of hands-on activities, or book onto our free workshops for a more in-depth look at topics like the science of chocolate, fusion energy, geology, and cryptology.

Each year, the Nottinghamshire Festival of Science and Curiosity reaches more children, teachers and families across the city and county, inspiring curiosity and igniting passions for all things STEM and we would like to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who’s been a part of it this year, especially our partners, the festival network, and our contributors and volunteers who run and support such amazing activities across Nottinghamshire!

A very special thank you also goes to our brilliant NTU graphic designer and illustrator Jay Parkin for their exceptional creativity and skill in creating this year’s magazine. Thank you also to Laura Flatt for her innovative design of the Mission Memory game on pages 20-23. We’d also like to thank Joseph Volichenko for the vibrant front cover design as well as Holly Brooks, Adrian Toy, and Emilia FrancisRobertson for their wonderful illustration contributions. We are also so grateful to the wonderful Year 7s from The Wells Academy who helped us copy-edit the magazine with their feedback and ideas. And finally, a huge thanks to Olivia Gioia for her fabulous content creation promoting the festival.

For more information about the Nottinghamshire Festival of Science and Curiosity, including low-carbon travel options and accessibility information about our venues, please visit www.nottsfosac.co.uk or follow us on social media @NottsFOSAC.

Science Outside The Lab

People usually think science is only for scientists, who work in laboratories, wear lab coats and experiment with chemicals. However, its much more than that!

Science in everyday places:

Kitchen: measuring, heating, rising

Shops and Factories: science is used to make sure products work and are safe

Technology: science is used to design phones, cars,

What do we learn from this?

Science is not just in labs, it can be found in everyday life. From the food that you cook, to the cars on the road, science can be found everywhere!

Activity:

Find three things in your house that use science and draw them in the box below!

Activity by Laura from NUAST

Speed Of Light

A Journey Without An End!

Who or what do you think is the fastest in the world? Superman perhaps? Well, actually its ‘light’ which is perhaps even faster than The Flash would be in the real world!

FUN FACTS!

Light travels at 300,000 kilometres per second! That’s a million times faster than a jet! That’s so fast, it can go around the Earth 7 times in one second.

Sunlight takes about 8 minutes to reach Earth. So, when you see the Sun you’re seeing what it looked like 8 minutes ago. So, in a way we are all time travellers living in the past.

Light can travel through different materials like air, water, glass but it slows down slightly depending on the medium, for example light moves slower in water than in air!

Can you design your own superhero logo?

Activity by Joel from South Nottinghamshire Academy

How Much Nature Do Children Need?

A research project led by children...

Year 5 children at Welbeck Primary School in the Meadows area of Nottingham have been investigating the natural environment around the school, and learning about how children in Finland also relate to nature. Here Livia and Inaya describe how they have been observing nature more closely and how it affects their feelings and well-being.

We would love all readers to take our survey or how much nature means to you. Please scan the QR Code.

A Primary Project of Nature:

We’ve been working on this project for nearly 2 years now, and we’ve learnt so much about nature from Koli, Finland to Nottingham, England. It’s been our favourite lesson ever since we’ve started. It all started in year 3 with curiosity boxes. They’re basically boxes that contain items from nature which we are either curious about or don’t know what they are. Then we scuttled off to year 4: where we created zines (mini magazines), and learned about spiders, and lichen and air quality with Professor Sara Goodacre who works at the University of Nottingham; and we also went to that same University where we looked at a 3D map of Nottingham. Then we jumped off to year 5 and went to Colwick Woods where we learned more about nature and did voice recordings. We’re also making some surveys to know what nature means to you to investigate the main differences between Finland and Nottingham. We’ve also done some video calls with the school in Koli, Finland, and that started in year 4 and is still going on in year 5. We exchanged pictures of our special places in Nature too, and these are in the forest near the Koli school and in our own wildlife area at Welbeck. Because this project is about our curiosity we call ourselves Children as Researchers, and a group of us are going to present a workshop for adults at a special conference all about ‘Citizen Science’ in the city of Oulu in Finland in March.

Here are some poems that our year 5 pupils have done:

Nature can be green, brown or blue

Anything it wants but one thing

That will always be the same

Is it will always be true

By Inaya

SOME WORDS FROM THE CHILDREN FROM FINLAND:

What is different between nature in Nottingham and Finland?

The Koli children said:

We go through nature, in Nottingham you go to nature

We learned that some spiders can ‘fly’ hundreds of miles

We learn survival instinct from nature.

There is more forest in Finland, and winter is longer.

We love learning English from our Nottingham friends.

Nature will forever live, If you will help me No more sawing and cutting, just let it live By

Livia

Nature is might, Nature is strong, Nature is beauty, Nature is moody, Nature is smart, Nature is blue, Nature is green, Nature is true, Nature is me, Nature is you, Nature will forever be free.

By Mahi

If you find lichen growing on old branches or walls, and black spots on leaves it means the air quality around there is good.

Space + Planets

Activity by Lyba from NUAST

Life Cycle Of a Frog

By students from South Nottinghamshire Academy

Frogs are fascinating animals with incredibly strong limbs that are crucial to success within their environment. However, for their limbs to become so powerful they must undergo an astounding transformation which takes place over a number of weeks.

Stage 1:

In early Spring, as the weather starts to warm up, adult frogs lay hundreds of tiny eggs called frogspawn.

Frogspawn are often found in shallow water such as garden ponds and they are often laid just beneath the surface of the water to help protect them from pesky predators.

Stage2:

Baby frogs hatch into the world after one to three weeks of eating their own yolk! They are now called tadpoles. They have a gill, mouth and long, wiggly tail which they need for swimming.

However, they don’t move much in their first week or two after hatching as they’re still absorbing nutrition from their yolk. After they have finished doing this, they feed on plant material nearby in the water to survive. The tadpoles then slowly metamorphose (change shape) into frogs over the next 14 weeks and once metamorphosis is complete, the baby frogs emerge from the water as tiny adults!

Stage 3:

Ta-dah! The frogs are all grown up. As adults, the frogs are not nearly as reliant on water. Nevertheless, they still have to remain in the shade so they don’t dry out. And before you know it the female frogs will head back to the pond to lay even more eggs.

Ultimate TIC-TAC-TOE

The Maths

Imagine playing tic-tac-toe, but each square is itself a tiny tic-tac-toe board. That’s ultimate tic-tac-toe! When you put your X or O in one of the small squares, you don’t just win that little board, you also decide which board your opponent has to play on next. It’s like the game keeps zooming in and out, from small

This “game inside a game” idea is a bit like fractals in maths. Fractals are shapes that look the same when you zoom in closer and closer, like the patterns on a snowflake or the branches of a fern. In ultimate tic-tac-toe, you’re playing tictac-toe at two levels at once: the tiny grids and the giant grid they form together. Scientists who study game theory, the maths of choices and strategies, think this version is far more interesting than normal tic-tac-toe. The classic game usually ends in a boring draw, but ultimate tic-tac-toe makes players think many moves ahead. One clever move on a small board might help you win the entire game! So ultimate tic-tac-toe isn’t just fun, it’s a puzzle that mixes patterns, strategy, and big ideas from maths, all hiding inside a grid of Xs and Os.

The Rules:

The Big Board:

The game has one big grid, made of 9 small tic-tac-toe boards. Your aim is to win three small boards in a row (across, down, or diagonal) on the big grid.

Playing a Move

On your turn, put your X or O in one square of a small board. That small square tells your opponent which small board they must play in next. (Example: if you play in the bottom-left square of a small board, your opponent must play in the bottom-left board of the big grid.)

Winning a Small Board:

Play continues inside each little tic-tac-toe board.

If you get three in a row in a small board, you win that board and claim it on the big grid with your X or O.

Getting Stuck:

If a player is sent to a board that’s already full or already won, they can choose any other open board to play in.

Winning the Game:

The first player to win three small boards in a row on the big grid is the overall winner!

Activity from Maths Blast!

FOSAC At Wollaton Hall

Science Of Language

Writing systems (or writing scripts) are used around the world to write down spoken language. Almost all languages have a writing script, and these can be put into six different groups.

Logographic (logo-graph-ic)

Each character in a logographic script represents a full word or meaning. In English, we would need three letters to make the word dog, but in Mandarin Chinese, that can be represented by one character. Examples: Mandarin Chinese (Hànzì), Japanese (Kanji, which are adapted Chinese characters), Classical Nahuatl (Aztec script).

Alphabet (al-fa-bet)

Alphabets have symbols (letters) representing both vowels and consonants. Alphabets can look very different depending on the language, but if both vowels and consonants are represented, it’s an alphabet! Examples: English and Spanish (Latin alphabet), Russian (Cyrillic alphabet), Greek (Greek alphabet).

Abjad (ab-jad)

Represents the consonants of a language. You can tell what a word is without any vowels, only using the consonants and the context! Examples: Arabic (Arabic script), Hebrew and Yiddish (Hebrew script).

Abugida (ah-buh-gee-da)

Abugidas represent syllables with one symbol (they don’t have symbols for vowels or consonants). Syllables ka and ko in Hindi look similar because they share the k, but there is a slight difference showing they’re not the same syllable. Examples: Hindi (Devanagari script), Ethiopic (Ge’ez script).

Featural (fee-tu-ral)

Shows parts of languages that are not the vowels, consonants, syllables, or meanings. They show things like the places in the mouth where the sound is produced (at the front or at the back or elsewhere). Examples: Korean (Hangul script), Cia-Cia (an Austronesian language found in Indonesia), American Sign Language (ASL-phabet).

Syllabary (sil-ah-buh-ree)

These represent syllables with a single symbol, there is no part that looks the same in syllables which share a sound. Examples: Japanese (Hiragana script), Central Alaskan Yup’ik (Yugtun/Alaska script).

Make your own writing script! Here are a few simple words you might want to start writing your new script with:

Hello

Goodbye I You Cat Now it’s your turn! What written script will you come up with?

Activity from Ana Vieru, Modern Langugages Student at University of Nottingham

CRACK THE SUBMARINE CODE!

How To Play:

For six decades, the UK’s Royal Navy submarines have relied on nuclear propulsion technology created and maintained by Rolls-Royce. To grow the next generation of specialists in this field, the company runs apprenticeship programmes in areas such as nuclear business management and engineering technology.

1. Replace the numbers with letters to decrypt the submarine code.

2. If you need some hints, you can spot short words or repeated letters – these often give some words away.

3. As parts of the message start to make sense, use logic and context to fill in the rest.

4. Adjust your guesses as needed until the full hidden message appears clearly.

Tardigrades

Tiny but Tough: Meet the Mighty Tardigrade!

What creature is so small you need a microscope to see it yet so tough it can survive in outer space?! Meet the tardigrade, also known as a water bear or moss piglet. These tiny animals may look like chubby little sausages with legs, but they are some of the most incredible creatures on Earth.

Miniature Marvels

Tardigrades are less than 1 millimeter long. That’s smaller than a grain of sand! They have eight legs with tiny claws and waddle around like little bears, which is how they got their nickname. You can find them almost anywhere: in moss, soil, ocean floors, or even on the highest mountains.

Survival Superstars

What makes tardigrades so special is their amazing ability to survive. They can handle boiling heat, freezing cold, intense radiation, and even the vacuum of space! How? When things get tough, they curl up into a tiny ball called a ‘tun’ and go into a deep sleep. In this state, they can live without food or water for decades.

So next time you look at a patch of moss or a drop of pond water, remember there might be a whole army of water bears

From the Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre, University of Nottingham.

These images have been captured using a technique called Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy. Electrons (negatively charged particles) are fired onto the surface of a sample, and the combined interaction from the electrons and the sample gives us these black and white images.

Invention Challenge

Can you invent an improvement for a phone?

Can you think of a new app?

Does the phone have a new kind of camera? Or buttons? Or screen?

Can you think of a way to make the phone easier or more fun to use?

FRONT BACK

What is Neuroscience?

Did you know your brain has diﬀerent parts that do diﬀerent jobs? Some parts help you remember things, others help you move, and some even help you balance or listen!

Activity: Below is a picture of a brain for you to colour in. Each section has its own special role — so use your imagination!

Neuroscience is the study of the brain and nervous system which is important in our life because it helps us understand why we act and think the way we do. It shows how the biology in our body connects to our emotions and behaviour. The brain is the boss and sends electrical signals through special cells called neurons which pass chemical messages called neurotransmitters. This tells your body what to do, like when you touch a hot pan and your brain quickly says, “Ouch! Move your hand!”.

PART OF THE BRAIN:

Frontal Lobe

Parietal Lobe

Occipital Lobe

Cerebellum

Temporal Lobe

WHAT IT DOES: COLOUR IT:

DRAW:

Brainstem thinking, problem solving touch, movement vision coordination hearing heart rate, sleeping yellow purple red orange blue green lightbulbs, question marks hands, body stretching eyeballs, glasses scales, balance ears, headphones heart, bed, sleeping person

By Donna Sipson, Neuroscience student at University of Nottingham

Magic Red Cabbage Experiment

What you need:

- 6 – 7 leaves of red cabbage

- A blender and adult to help with blending

- 200-300mL water

- A sieve

- A big container and see-through cups

- Liquids to test: lemon juice, white vinegar, tap water, baking soda water, liquid cleaning products (don’t use bleach), etc.

Explanation:

Red cabbage contains a natural pigment called anthocyanin, which changes colour when mixed with different substances. When you add something acidic, like lemon juice or vinegar, the colour turns pink or red. When you add something basic, like baking soda or soap water, it turns green or yellow. Neutral liquids, such as water, stay purple. This happens because anthocyanin reacts to the pH level of a liquid, allowing us to see whether it’s an acid or a base — just like a simple, natural pH sensor!

What to do:

1. Get an adult to help you.

2. Chop the cabbage into small pieces.

3. Blend the cabbage with 200-300mL of water.

4. Pour the cabbage juice into a big container through the sieve, discarding the leaves. This gives you your red cabbage indicator liquid!

5. Prepare small amounts of each test liquid like lemon juice or baking soda water into each clear cup. *Magic time!*

6. Pour the magic red cabbage juice into each test liquid cup.

7. Watch the colour change!

INTRODUCTION:

Dr Chenyang is an Assistant Professor in Photonic and Optical Sensing at the University of Nottingham. His research focuses on developing advanced optical and photonic technologies for sensing applications, aiming to improve precision measurement and detection in science and engineering.

Your brain is always changing, even at this very second!

This is called neuroplasticity. Every time you learn something new, your brain builds tiny new connetions between neurones (brain cells).

This allows your neurones to talk to each other and make friends! These new connections between neurones are called synapses. The more your neurones talk, the stronger the synapses get and the better friends they become. This means you can remember what you learned better.

When neurones don’t talk for a while the synapse gets weaker and they stop being such good friends. This is how we forget things but this is completely normal! This is actually a good thing as it makes more space for your neurones to make more synapses with other neurones (new friends).

When you were about 2 years old, your brain was making up to 2 million new connections every second!

On the next page you can try out what you have learned on the mission memory board game!

Cut out the dice and put glue on the tabs to stick it together into a cube.

Each player cuts out their game piece and places it on the start space.

Take turns rolling the dice to see how many spaces to move forwards. To move from start you must roll a 6.

To win the game, you must land on the last space, if your dice roll means you go past the last space, you cannot move and need to wait until it’s your turn again.

When you land on a ladder space, you have formed a new connection, you can follow it upwards, well done!

When you land on a spiral space, you have lost a connection and must move to where it points, bad luck.

River Habitats

Did you know…

As part of the job we do as ecologists at The Environment Agency, we do River Habitat Surveys to find out how natural a river is?

Throughout history, humans have changed rivers to suit our needs. For example, sometimes curvy rivers were straightened to make more land available for farming, sometimes tall banks were built to stop the water from spilling out and causing floods, and sometimes the banks were made stronger with hard materials such as rock or concrete to stop them from eroding.

In a River Habitat Survey, we walk along half a kilometre of the river and note down all the things we see, including the bank and channel material – is it natural, like cobbles, sand or clay, or made by humans, like concrete or bricks? We look at the land use around the river, such as fields, towns and meadows. We see what kinds of plants are in the river or along its banks. We write down if there are any nice natural features, such as riﬄes (shallow stony areas) or cliffs.

All these things can affect the river and affect what type of animals and plants live in it. Some live among tree roots, while others prefer living on rocks, or some in sand. It also allows us to understand how rivers have changed over time, helps us describe what a river looks like to people who have never seen it, and even helps us understand which areas might flood and what protection might already be in place to help stop flooding.

Bea Heighton, The Environment Agency

Physics Puzzles

My name is Ed, and I study physics. Physics is a branch of science exploring the rules of the universe. It is my job to ask questions like “why is the sky blue?” and “where do rainbows come from?”, and I absolutely love a good puzzle! I hope you enjoy them too! Can you solve the challenges on this page?

Find ten 6-letter physics words hidden in the grid above!

1. Downward force

2. Thermal energy

3. ______ Burner

4. Centre of an atom

5. Speed in a direction

6. A powerful light beam

7. Experimented

8. A charged atom

9. A wave you can hear

Butterflies Under Pressure

Nectar cafés

Humans have split-up habitats for butterflies into smaller places (called habitat fragmentation), causing the butterflies’ food (plants) to become spread out so that they are very far away or difficult to find.

By growing flowers with lots of nectar for adult butterflies to drink, nectar cafés can help to connect split-up habitats, making it easier for butterflies to find food without travelling long distances.

Your Activity

In Vlinder Town, people living in four different streets (Peacock Street, Gatekeeper Street, Ringlet Street and Comma Street) decided to create nectar cafés in their gardens at home, at school and in parks, by planting flowers full of nectar for adult butterflies to drink. The town councillor thought this was a great idea and decided to make some funds available to create six more nectar cafés. But the town councillor was not sure where the new nectar cafés should be planted. They asked a research scientist to create a map showing the number and location of each of the nectar cafés present in each of the streets. The map created by the research scientist is shown in the picture below.

On the map, the location of each nectar café is indicated on a grid using a flower symbol. The research scientist marked the map with six green crosses to indicate where they thought new nectar cafés should be planted to try to join-up the nectar cafés in each street to make it easier for adult butterflies to travel between streets to find flowers.

Question 1: Which street had the largest number of nectar cafés?

Answer: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Question 2: Coordinates can help you find an exact location on a grid. Use the coordinates on the grid on the map to record the suggested location of the 3 new nectar cafés in Peacock Street. Hint, the new nectar cafés are indicated on the map with a green ‘x’. To find the coordinates for each nectar café, first read along the x-axis and then up the y-axis. Write your answers below (the first one has been done for you).

Nectar café location 1:

Answer: ---------------------------------(1,-2)-----------------------------------------

Nectar café location 2:

Answer: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nectar café location 3:

Answer: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fixing DNA: How Scientists Edit Life’s Recipe

By Dr. Mary L Clarke PhD FHEA, Dpt for Biomedical Science, School of Infection, Inflammation and Immunology, College of Medicine and Health, University of Birmingham

Imagine baking a cake. The recipe says “add salt instead of sugar.” Adding salt instead of sugar changes how the cake tastes. Our bodies also follow recipes—called DNA. DNA is a long code made of four letters (A, T, C, G). These letters tell our cells how to grow and stay healthy. But sometimes,

Can you spot the typo between these DNA sequences?

A: GTG CAC CTG ACT CCT GAG GAG AAG

TCT GCC GTT ACT GCC CTG TGG GGC AAG

B : GTG CAC CTG ACT CCT GTG GAG AAG

TCT GCC GTT ACT GCC CTG TGG GGC AAG

Sequence B contains a typo that turns an ‘A’ into a ‘T’ and causes a disease called sickle cell disease, which causes red blood cells to lose their round shape and so they get stuck in the blood vessels. People with this disease can be very sick.

Cool Fact!

CRISPR was found in bacteria as a way for them to protect against viruses.

Enter Gene Editing!

Scientists have learned to fix these typos. The most famous tool is called CRISPR (said like “crisper”). CRISPR is like a pair of teenytiny scissors. CRISPR can snip the DNA at the right spot and swap in the correct letter. It’s like editing a story so it makes sense again, and has worked in medical trials to cure sickle cell disease.

Try It Yourself:

DNA is like a story where even a small change can mean something totally different. Can you “edit” these sentences by changing one letter so that it changes the meaning or maybe makes no sense at all!

The cat ate the rat. The sun is hot.

Whirling Spiders

The Tiny Dancers of the Cellar

Have you ever wondered if spiders have thoughts and feelings? We don’t know all the answers yet, but scientists are working hard to find out more. One thing they study is the tiny bugs (like bacteria, fungi, and viruses) that spiders carry. These bugs can live inside a spider’s body and on its skin. Scientists call this collection of bugs a microbiome. The microbiome can affect how spiders behave and help scientists understand why they act in certain ways. A spider’s behaviour is also influenced by its genes. Genes are like invisible instruction manuals that every living thing has. A spider gets one set of instructions from each parent, and these instructions decide how it looks, how it behaves, and how well it survives in the wild.

Pholcus phalangioides, also called the common Cellar spider, has a special trick called ‘whirling’. When it feels threatened, the spider spins super-fast — and it looks a lot like dancing! Scientists think this helps the spider escape predators. Imagine playing tag in the playground: the faster you run, the harder it is for your friends to tag you. The spider does the same thing by whirling quickly; it confuses predators so they can’t catch it.

Look below, can you become a spider scientist for a day and record whether you find any cellar spiders at home or at school? If you’re feeling brave, gently use your fingertip to tickle the spider. If it rapidly spins its body in circles, you’ve discovered a tiny dancer! If it stays still, you might have a poorly spider on your hands that just needs some rest.

Where

Did

Ellie

Clifton, Life Sciences, University of Nottingham

In the University Spider Lab, where scientists study spiders, they’ve found that some spiders carry special bacteria called endosymbionts (tiny bugs that live inside their cells). These bugs can actually decide whether the spider dances or not! Some endosymbionts stop the spiders from dancing altogether, while spiders without them keep dancing to their favourite songs — and dancing makes them harder for predators to catch.

Think about when you feel too poorly to go to school or your clubs, like football or dance. Spiders can feel under the weather, too! So next time you spot a cellar spider, be kind — they might just show you a dance move or two.

Number of spiders

did you ﬁnd the spider?

your spider dance?

Mae

Super Regions For Geology

What makes the ground below our feet ‘just right’ for renewable energy?

The British Geological Survey (BGS) have recently identified eight geological ‘super regions’ with rock types which are just right for the energy transition.

The subsurface refers to the rock and soil found below the ground surface and often contains complex geological structures such as faults and fractures. These super regions have a geological subsurface that would allow sustainable technologies such as wind turbines and geothermal energy plants to be constructed. The UK’s geological subsurface can help with the energy transition by:

• Providing a heat source through geothermal energy. Geothermal energy extracts the Earth’s internal heat to produce electricity and provide heating and cooling for buildings.

• Allowing us to securely store CO2 in the ground. Another way of tackling climate change is to capture CO2 that is already in the atmosphere by burying it underground. This is known as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

• Providing stable foundation conditions for wind turbines. Having stable and secure ground is crucial for the successful installation of wind turbines. Wind turbines are very tall and heavy and the subsurface needs to be just right so that the wind turbines can be installed safely on and off the UK coast.

BGS have identified eight ‘goldilocks zones’ in the UK: Northern Ireland, the Scottish Central Belt, north-east England, north-west England, the South Yorkshire and Humber region, the East Midlands and East Anglia, South Wales, and south-west England. Renewable energy technologies also rely on important metals and minerals. Anything that can’t be grown is mined from the subsurface including the materials used to make phones, cars, and televisions.

STEP Fusion is building the world’s ﬁrst fusion energy power plant in West Burton, on the North Nottinghamshire/Lincolnshire border.

Fusion energy is the process that powers our sun and stars, which gives us lots of heat and light. It happens on earth when we heat up two di erent types of hydrogen atoms. We heat the atoms to 150 million degrees to form what’s known as ‘plasma’. We conﬁne the plasma using magnets inside a machine known as a tokamak which allows us to safely fuse the atoms together, and harness the energy for us to use to fuel our homes, schools and hospitals.

HELP ﬁND OUR FUSIONEERS

Lots of people are working hard to deliver fusion energy to the national grid. They all do diﬀerent and very important jobs.

Can you match the job titles with the job description?

Materials Engineer Robotics Engineer Plasma Physicist

YOU BUILD AND PROGRAM ROBOTS THAT CAN GO INSIDE THE STEP POWER PLANT TO PERFORM MAINTENANCE.

YOU GO INTO SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES, EDUCATING PEOPLE ABOUT FUSION ENERGY AND THE CAREERS OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE.

YOU ORGANISE ALL THE DIﬀERENT PEOPLE WORKING ON A GIVEN TASK. YOU MANAGE BUDGETS, TEAMS AND TIMELINES TO ENSURE THINGS RUN SMOOTHLY.

YOU DESIGN WHAT THE STEP POWER PLANT SHOULD BE MADE OUT OF,

Dinosaurs

How do we know what we know about dinosaurs?

How do we know what dinosaurs looked like? Well, we know as a result of fossils! We can use fossils of bones, teeth, footprints and even dinosaur poo to gather information about their appearances and average sizes. We know this information thanks to a process called fossilisation.

Fossilisation occurs when an animal, such as a dinosaur, dies and its body sinks to the sea floor. The skeleton is buried by sediment (mud or sand). As pressure increases the layers of sediment turn rock hard, the skeleton dissolves leaving a hole in the sediment. This is also known as a natural mould. Minerals crystallise in the natural mould, forming a cast of the original structure but we can’t see internal structures.

What do you think?

Is this what a dinosaur looked like millions of years ago?

What we do and don’t know:

Well, we know the anatomy of dinosaurs based on the proximity of bones we have found and the arrangement we have developed of suspected structures by testing positions of bones like a jigsaw. We also know that some dinosaurs had feathers as some fossils have slight imprints from a structure like feathers.

However, there are some things that we don’t know about for sure. We can’t figure out the sounds dinosaurs made based on their fossils alone as voice boxes cannot be preserved and we don’t have experience of hearing a dinosaur roar as they were alive approximately 245 million years ago. So for all we know dinosaurs could have meowed!

Brushing VS Bacteria

Brushing your teeth is important to help fight the nasty bugs that live in your mouth. These bugs form a sticky protective layer (biofilm) called plaque. If you don’t brush your teeth the plaque will grow and can lead to a sore mouth, bad breath and even teeth falling out! Can you spot the difference between someone who does and someone who doesn’t brush their teeth?

The Cavity crew – Suzy the Streptococcus

Suzy has a sweet tooth, and lives in a sugary environment eating leftover sweeties causing sore teeth. She hides in the deep pits in your mouth in a special sticky shield (biofilm) known as plaque making it even harder to remove Suzy.

The Gum Gang - Polly the Porphyromonas

Perry is sneaky and hides in your gums. He will join in with Suzy and have a party in your mouth, stomping all over your gums. You can scare him away by brushing twice a day!

The bad breath brunch- Tony the Treponema

Tony loves to hang out with friends Suzy and Polly. He plays hide and seeks in your gums, making room for even more of his friends. This can lead to bad breath and sore teeth.

Brogan Richards, NBIC at University of Nottingham

Colour in the Deep Sea

Design by Laura Flatt

Use these last two pages to express your own curiosity and creativity!

Invent!

Events Listings

All events are free to attend unless stated otherwise and all information is correct at the time of print. For any event marked ‘booking’, please ensure you book your places to attend via our website, where you can also find more details and accessibility: www.nottsfosac.co.uk

MONDAY 9TH FEBRUARY

Join Sowing Sneinton as part of FOSAC where we learn about Soil Science in the Community Garden. All Ages.

WEDNESDAY 11TH FEBRUARY Sowing Sneinton -

A special talk for International Women and Girls in Science Day exploring the uncelebrated women working in particle physics in the 60s and 70s. Ages 16+.

THURSDAY 12TH FEBRUARY

Join Sowing Sneinton for their gardening stay and play for ages 0-5 which now includes a veggie lunch! *Remember to dress for the weather*Under 5s with their adults.

Chocolate Tasty with

Supported by the Institute of Physics, this talk and demonstration explores how physics makes chocolate tasty! All Ages.

14TH FEBRUARY

Come along to this hands-on event in Nottingham’s Central Library, where there will be three floors of science fun from neuroscience to 3D printing, lava lamps to submarines, brain games to biology! All Ages.

Discover what’s up there in the world above us through an immersive experience from the University of Nottingham. Ages 7+.

Join us and bring coding to life using Ozobots as line following robots in this workshop led by Charlotte Land from Spark STEM. Ages 7+.

Head over to Broadway’s monthly drop-in family craft before watching a screening of The Wild Robot. All Ages.

The Secret Science Show Wollaton Hall

Drop In 11.00-15.30

Come along to Wollaton Hall for a day of hands-on interactive activities in The Great Hall. All ages.

Tiny Planet Theatre Show Lakeside Arts

Booking

11.00-12.00 14.00-15.00

£10.5012.00.

Public Health Workshop Meadows Library

Booking 10.30-12.30

Imagine a whole world no bigger than a house, yet it is the centre of a galaxy. With breathtaking puppetry, live folk music and projection, uncover the mysteries that keep this little globe turning. Tiny Planet carries echoes of The Little Prince, inviting you on a journey to explore how we all can sometimes feel impossibly small and infinitely gigantic. Ages 5+.

More information coming soon. Check our website!

SUNDAY 15TH FEBRUARY

LEGO Build the Change Saving Today’s Dinosaurs Wollaton Hall

Tiny Planet Theatre Show Lakeside Arts

Booking

11.15-12.00

12.15-13.00 14.00-14.45

Booking

11.00-12.00

14.00-15.00

£10.50£12.00.

Free hands-on activities with LEGO bricks. Today’s dinosaurs need your help, so join in the fun by putting your creativity and imagination to the test! All Ages.

Design Your Own Tiny Planet Lakeside Arts

Booking

12.30-13.30

£8, free adult place.

A Creative Workshop for Curious Minds, ever dreamed of creating your own world? You are invited to design a tiny planet including its landscapes, creatures to the culture and climate. Is it made of jelly, crystals, or clouds? Does it float in space or hide underwater? Who lives there – friendly aliens, talking trees, or musical mountains? What do they eat, how do they travel, and what games do they play? Ages 5-10.

MONDAY 16TH FEBRUARY

Science Fun Day

Bulwell Riverside Library

Science Fun Day

Mansfield Central Library

Drop In 10.00-14.00

Join us for hands-on activities at Bulwell Library where you can explore science fun and meet a very special robot called Purble. All Ages.

Join us for hands-on activities and explore science fun such as natural dyeing, ozobots and much more. All Ages.

Inflatable PlanetariumStories in the Stars

Mansfield Central Library

Science Fun Day Southwell Minster

Amazelabs (SEND) The Bridge Skills Hub

Bath-Bomb Making Workshops Arnold Library

Geology Workshops

Kirkby-in-Ashfield Library

LEGO Build the Change Saving Today’s Dinosaurs Wollaton Hall

Sowing Sneinton - Wildlife Monitoring Lindum Grove Community Garden

Booking 10.00 11.00 13.00 14.00

Drop In 10.30-15.00

Drop In 10.00-14.00

Booking

10.00-10.20

10.20-10.40

10.40-11.00

11.00-11.20

11.20-11.40

11.40-12.00

Booking

10.00-10.45

11.00-11.45

12.00-12.45

13.30-14.15

14.30-15.15

15.30-16.15

Booking

11.15-12.00

12.15-13.00 14.00-14.45

Booking 10.00-12.30

Within the NTU inflatable digital planetarium we will explore together what’s up above at night. Fly with us to Jupiter, make your own constellations, and hear stories about heroes in the sky. Ages 7+.

Join us for a day of hands-on activities from Catalent, science busking and more! All Ages.

More information coming soon. Check our website!

Meet the Nottingham Lush team, get creative and make your own bath bombs in this fun, family workshop.Ages 7+

City of Caves National Justice Museum

Drop In 10.30-16.00

Join the team from the British Geological Survey where you’ll have the opportunity to explore their interactive models and take part in activities about geology and landslides. Ages 7+.

Free hands-on activities with LEGO bricks. Today’s dinosaurs need your help, so join in the fun by putting your creativity and imagination to the test! All Ages.

Join Sowing Sneinton as part of FOSAC where we learn about Wildlife Monitoring in the Community Garden. All ages.

Come and try your hand at a bit of archaeological finds recording. Learn about how archaeologists record the items they find on site before you create your own finds record sheet for your favourite item. You will also be shown how archaeologists complete their technical drawings and be provided with the equipment for you to have a go yourself as part of your finds record sheet. All Ages.

TUESDAY 17TH FEBRUARY

Trelleborg Activities Bassetlaw Museum

Drop In 10.00-12.00 13.00-15.00

Meet the team from Trelleborg and take part in hands-on activities all about engineering! Ages 7+.

Science Fun Day Clifton Library

Drop In 10.00-14.00

Science Fun Day

Harworth Town Hall

The Science of Chocolate Workshop

Arnold Library

Fusion Workshops Worksop Library

The Sensory Adventure - How our brain sees, feels, hears & smells!

Keyworth Library

Eureka! Maths Workshop Forest Town Library

Drop In 10.00-14.00

Booking

10.00-10.45 11.00-11.45

Booking

10.00-11.00

11.00-12.00

13.00-14.00

14.00-15.00

Booking

11.00-12.00

13.00-14.00

15.00-16.00

Booking

10.00-11.00

11.15-12.15

13.00-14.00

Booking

LEGO Build the Change Saving Today’s Dinosaurs Wollaton Hall

Make It Yours with Ben McPherson

National Justice Museum

11.15-12.00

12.15-13.00

14.00-14.45

Booking 10.00-12.00

Come along to this hands-on event in Clifton Library, where you can explore how the brain works, cells, electricity, and become a plastic detective. All Ages.

Come along to this hands-on event in Harworth Town Hall, get up close with the Cyber Blue Line Van and explore Augmented Reality E-sports. All Ages.

Join researchers from University of Nottingham to learn about chocolate fermentation, ingredients and taste, including the opportunity to sample chocolate. Ages 7+.

Meet the team from The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and take part in handson activities all about fusion energy! Ages 5+.

Join this interactive workshop where children will explore how their senses work. Through hands-on activities including mystery touch boxes, optical illusions, scent jars, and animal sound games, children will discover how their skin, eyes, nose and ears send messages to the brain. Ages 7+.

Join us for an engaging and hands-on workshop during which we employ measuring cylinders, pipettes, and coloured water to explore the concepts of mean, median, mode and range. Ages 7+.

Free hands-on activities with LEGO bricks. Today’s dinosaurs need your help, so join in the fun by putting your creativity and imagination to the test! All Ages.

The smallest object can help identify a person – it could be a button, an earring, or a favourite coat. In A Clue to You explore these objects through writing, drawing and storytelling. Ages 7+.

Make It Yours with Lucy Davies

National Justice Museum

Booking 13.30-15.30

Explore our connection to nature through design in this lino print workshop. Inspired by the current NJM exhibition, you’ll collect natural motifs from historical objects and create your own nature designs and prints. Ages 7+.

Science Fun Day Stapleford Community Room

Booking + Drop In 10.00-10.45 11.00-11.45

12.00-14.00

Join NAMI for interactive workshops all about sustainable battery-power before blasting off rockets and trying out our science busking. All Ages.

WEDNESDAY 18TH FEBRUARY

Come along to this hands-on event in Dales Library, to make magic potions, learn about your wonderful skin, and explore maths from Spaghetti Maths. All Ages.

Drop In

Trelleborg Activities

Brain detectives: using your senses to solve the case!

Library

11.00- 11.45 12.30 - 13.15 14.00-14.45

Join the team from Beeston-based York Archaeology for hands-on workshops learning and trying out a range of different archaology skills, including finds handling, quantification and illustration. Ages 10+. Science Fun Day

Come along to this hands-on event at The Bridge Skills Hub, where you can explore fusion energy, retro games, and cyber space. All Ages.

Meet the team from Trelleborg and take part in hands-on activities all about engineering! Ages 7+.

Something mysterious is happening… and we need young detectives to solve it! Become a detective and follow a trail of clues using four key senses.Perfect for children who love exploring, investigating, and using their senses to make discoveries. Ages 7+ Inflatable Planetarium -

Join researchers for an exciting event where kids can explore the fascinating world of psychology through interactive activities. From fun experiments to brain teasers, this event will engage young minds and spark curiosity about how our brains work. Ages 7+. York Archaeology

Fingerprinting Techniques National Justice Museum Drop In 11am-3pm

Practice lifting fingerprints using different techniques such as using aluminium fingerprint powder to lift fingerprints from tiles and revealing whole handprints on paper using magnetic powder. All Ages. Mind Masters

Charcoal Drawing Workshop

DH Lawrence Birthplace Museum

Little Brains Southglade Library

Cells, Viruses and Bacteria

Creative Workshop Lakeside Arts

LEGO Build the Change Saving Today’s Dinosaurs

Wollaton Hall

Kids Invent Stuff – Free Cardboard Prototyping Activity

NTU Newton Building

Booking 10.3012.00 14.0015.30

Booking TIMES TBC

Join artist Catherine Gittens for this creative workshop exploring landscape and charcoal. Ages 10+.

Join Neuroscience Students from University of Nottingham for this under 5s session to explore learning about science and the brain. Ages 0-5.

Booking 10.30-12.30

£10

Booking

11.15-12.00 12.15-13.00 14.00-14.45

Booking 10.00-11.00 11.00-12.00

14.00-15.00 15.00-16.00

Using enlarged images of these tiny life forms, we’ll explore how to represent real microscopic organisms – and invent our own creations. Through drawing, painting, and mixed media, create both a hanging mobile and a petri dishinspired artwork. Ages 8-10.

Free hands-on activities with LEGO bricks. Today’s dinosaurs need your help, so join in the fun by putting your creativity and imagination to the test!

The Institute of Physics have teamed up with NTU to welcome YouTube Channel Kids Invent Stuff for a Cardboard Prototyping workshop full of fun, innovation, and engineering. What will you design and build?! A rocket? A castle? A teleporter? The possibilities are endless! More information on our website. Ages 7+.

THURSDAY 19TH FEBRUARY

Science Fun Day

Hyson Green Library

SEND Science Fun Day Nottingham Cathedral

Science Fun Day

Ladybrook Community Centre

All The Way To The Moon Carlton Library

Drop In 10.00-14.00

Booking 10.00-11.00 11.30-12.30 13.30-14.30

Come along to this hands-on event in Hyson Green Library, where you can explore science fun through activities related to optics, electricity, video games, and experiments. All Ages.

Come along to this SEND-friendly event at Nottingham Cathedral where families can explore science fun through interactive activities. All Ages.

Come along to this hands-on event at Ladybrook Community Centre where you can explore science fun through lots of interactive activities and experiments. All Ages.

Join this workshop featuring storytelling and creative activities. Children will explore the story of Clara and her friends returning the Moon to the sky with storytelling and hands-on activities led by two young creatives. Ages 7+.

Sowing Sneinton - Mini Growers

Lindum Grove Community Garden

Retro Games and Cryptology

Bassetlaw Museum

LEGO Build the Change Saving Today’s Dinosaurs

Pollinator Books with Ella Holden

Mansfield Woodhouse Library

Junkbots Workshop Newark Library

Make it Yours with Lucy Davies

National Justice Museum

Make it Yours with Ben McPherson

National Justice Museum

Booking

10.00-12.30

Drop In 10.00-12.00

13.00-15.00

Booking

11.15-12.00

12.15-13.00

14.00-14.45

Booking

10.00-11.30

12.30-14.00

15.00-16.30

Booking

13.30-14.30

14.45-15.45

Booking

10.00-12.00

Booking

13.30-15.30

Join Sowing Sneinton for their gardening stay and play for ages 0-5 which now includes a veggie lunch!! *Remember to dress for the weather*

Join University of Nottingham researchers for activities all about retro gaming. Ages 7+.

Free hands-on activities with LEGO bricks. Today’s dinosaurs need your help, so join in the fun by putting your creativity and imagination to the test! All Ages.

Led by artist Ella Holden, learn about pollination and the importance of the local insect population. Create a pop-up fact file about bees with creative techniques and share about pollinators. Ages 8+.

Come along to this workshop led by STEM Ambassadors where we’ll read a chapter from The Wild Robot and then make a moving robot from junk materials and electric circuits. Ages 7+.

The smallest object can help identify a person – it could be a button, an earring, or a favourite coat. In A Clue to You explore these objects through writing, drawing and storytelling. Ages 7+.

FRIDAY 20TH FEBRUARY

Science Fun Day Strelley Library

Come along to this hands-on event in Strelley Library, where you can explore science fun through activities like the Pyschology Fun Fair, Chemistry Busking and Optics! All Ages. LEGO Day

Amara and the Bats

Booking

10.00-14.00

Drop In 10.00-12.00

13.00-15.00

10.30-11.30

11.45-12.45

13.45-14.45

Come along to Lego Day Bassetlaw Museum where children of all ages can use their imagine build, create and play. All Ages.

Join local author and illustrator Emma Reynolds for a storytime workshop of her awardwinning book ‘Amara and the Bats’. Interactive storytelling, bat facts game, and batty drawalong!

LEGO Build the Change Saving Today’s Dinosaurs Wollaton Hall

Alchemy: Arts and Science Workshop Lakeside Arts

Big Hero 6 Screening & Robots Activities The Bonington

Booking

11.15-12.00

12.15-13.00

14.00-14.45

Booking

10.30-12.30 £10

Booking

10.00-12.00

Caring for Animals Workshop Warsop Library Booking

10.00-11.00 11.15-12.15

13.00-14.00

Free hands-on activities with LEGO bricks. Today’s dinosaurs need your help, so join in the fun by putting your creativity and imagination to the test!

Step into the magical world of alchemy and discover the secrets of transformation, experimentation, and imagination, just like the ancient alchemists. Ages 8-12.

Head over to The Bonington where researchers from University of Nottingham’s Cobot Lab will lead a ‘hacking’ workshop 10am - 12pm, followed by a screening of Big Hero 6 at 1.30pm and an opportunity to ‘Meet The Robots’ after the film. All Ages.

Join the Nottingham Trent University veterinary nursing for hands-on activities for children all about pet first aid and caring for animals. Ages 5+.

City of Caves Tour Nottingham City of Caves

Booking 10.30-16.00

Booked in for a paid tour of the City of Caves? Before you resurface and end your tour, find out how archaeologist plan archaeological sites, including the City of Caves, and have a go at recording the old Cellar from the Sam Hancock pub using archaeological methods. You can even take your plan home with you. All Ages.