The DCS hosted CS-ARC on the 22nd of March, with over 70 alumni coming to campus to reminisce and share their stories.

This Valentine's Day Dr Alex Baker explores the real chemistry behind chemistry and explains how flowers and chocolates are as good as any love tinyurl.com/3xv9zbjf

'Know Your River' is a new citizen science project based at the School of Life Sciences, funded by the Enhancing Research Culture Fund from UKRI.

The Know Your River Team, led by Dr Chiara Borsetto, is looking at the pollution state of rivers in England and their use for recreational purposes by using a citizen science approach. The project aims to raise awareness across the public on the issue of sewage pollution in rivers and associated risks to human health and also to engage with policy makers to help promote safeguarding of our rivers.

Anyone who is interested in rivers or using rivers for recreational activities across England can help by telling us how they use rivers and what their perception of river pollution is through anonymous surveys. You can also join in by collecting river water samples from across the River Severn, Thames and Humber catchment areas. The water samples will be analysed for presence of E.coli and other coliform bacteria resistant to antibiotics and the presence of selected antibiotics will also be monitored. We believe that citizen science can be a powerful tool to gather information about the environment we all live in. The deadline for participation is Thursday 30 June.

If you would like to find out more or be involved in the project, then please visit our website at www.warwick.ac.uk/knowyourriver and follow us on Twitter.

Staff and students from across WMG at the University of Warwick had another busy, fun-packed British Science Week, taking part in a total of seven special STEM events reaching out to more than 1,100 young scientists, teachers, and families.

British Science Week is a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths running from 8-17 March. It’s a chance to look into the future and celebrate the impact scientific ideas can make on society.

WMG staff and students were supported by the Outreach Team at the University of Warwick’s Resonate Festival of Science and Technology; hosted science days at local schools and held an event at the Coventry Transport Museum for parents and children embracing home schooling.

The Resonate Festival of Science and Technology welcomed over 500 people. Here them team ran an area called ‘Experience Engineering’ which featured science experiments; the opportunity to write code to control a digital embroidery machine; the navigation of robotic vehicles through a maze and more. Visitors were also able to meet the undergraduate student teams from Warwick Racing, Warwick Rail, Warwick Sub, and CyberWomen@Warwick.

WMG’s Director of Outreach and Widening Participation, Professor Margaret Low, explained: “These experiences allow students to see how their school learning applies to complicated and world-changing technologies. Through our outreach programmes we hope to inspire young people to pursue careers in STEM, widen participation in higher education and foster a culture of diversity in the future STEM workforce.”

WMG’s Widening Participation Co-ordinator, Dr Phil Jemmett, added: “WMG and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult have outreach activities that are designed to give students a sense of ownership, since there are always elements they can re-create or try out at home. All the experiments we use in science shows or at public events are written up on our website under WMG Experiments, and we show the audience how it all works.

“It’s never magic – this is something anyone can do if they put their mind to it. We want to show people how exciting science and engineering can be, and that anyone can be an engineer.”

Caroline Cannon, WMG’s Outreach Project Officer added: “None of this would be possible without our brilliant network of helpers from within WMG and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. They dedicate their time, on top of their busy day jobs and family commitments, to extend the reach of our programmes and to ensure the students have really memorable STEM experiences. We are so grateful to them.”

Find out more about WMG’s Outreach programmes here: Outreach and Widening Participation (warwick.ac.uk)

A Maths Week England event will be held in the Warwick Arts Centre creative learning space on Sunday 19 November 1:30-4pm. There will be origami, loaded dice experiments, building the hyperbolic plane, and counting with Incan knots, and more! More about Maths Week England hereLink opens in a new window.

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