UK Polar Network’s half-term science festivals 2025
This winter half-term, our festivals team were kept on their feet with not one but two outings to some of the nation’s enterprising public science events. On February 15th, a team of four volunteers headed to Nottingham Central Library to show visitors to the Festival of Science and Curiosity what life at the poles is like. Then, over two days and two fantastic venues, another team went the extra mile to engage diverse groups of attendees to the 2025 Cardiff Science Festival. Both events were packed with engaging encounters, including many a curious question from adults and children alike, as well as guest appearances from one Member of Parliament and one Antarctic veteran!
The Nottingham event kicked off slowly but soon there was a steady stream of guests lining up to see our two fantastic polar displays and try on real polar clothing loaned from the British Antarctic Survey. As people added ice to our sea-level bucket over the day, the water level rose, simulating the ongoing impacts of increased ice loss from the polar ice sheets due to anthropogenic climate change. Meanwhile, some got creative and used their imaginations to create all sorts of new polar wildlife in our crafting corner. Over 70 people engaged with our activities throughout the day, but the stand-out visitor was none other than local MP for Nottingham East, Nadia Whittome! In Parliament she has used her voice to advocate for more ambitious climate policy by co-sponsoring a recent bill. Our volunteers enjoyed chatting to her about the impacts of climate change at the poles and commended her enthusiasm and high level of knowledge!
The popular polar displays made back-to-back appearances at the Cardiff events, including a day in the atmospheric undercroft at Cardiff Castle! (Carrying them round the tight spiral staircase was a challenge!) Visitors to the dungeon were surprised by the exciting array of polar activities and brought lots of questions (why can’t polar bears meet penguins?). Many young emperors and kings (and queens!) also waddled up to compare their heights to the different species of penguin found in Antarctica. The activities were well-received again the following day on our return to the Grangetown Hub public library, where surprise guests included a Falklands Veteran and a family who’d come all the way from France!
Overall, nearly 200 people engaged with UK Polar Network over the two events, a fantastic achievement with only a handful of volunteers, who, though sometimes rushed off their feet, also had a great experience! In the words of one of our team: “it was overall a really enjoyable experience. […] I got to have some really great discussions with people, including lots of young children, and it was really encouraging to see so many young people interested in science.”
Thanks to everyone who supported us at both events, and especially to all the volunteers for giving so freely of their time and skills! If you’re an early-career scientist interested in developing your outreach experience, or you have an idea for a festivals opportunity UKPN could get involved in, we’d love to hear from you at festivals@polarnetwork.org.
Edmund Lea
UK Polar Network Festivals Team
Polar Family Day 2023
On 25th November 2023, UKPN’s annual polar families day at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich gave dozens of young children and adults a chance to explore the world of polar science for themselves. Volunteers from our network across the country travelled to London to offer a unique hands-on experience, including the chance to interact with 3-D table maps of the polar ice caps, dress up in polar field gear, learn about polar animals through crafts, and more!
Education about threats to the polar regions was a key theme of the day, with members from the British Antarctic Survey showing off samples and giving visitors the chance to examine them under a microscope, to learn about the problem of microplastics in polar oceans. Meanwhile, the event was the first public outing for the exciting Climate Change: It’s in Our Hands board game, developed by researchers at Northumbria University, in which children (and adults!) learned how to take on responsibility for tackling climate change and saving the planet.
Finally, a number of great talks were given, both by UKPN’s own early-career scientists, on their research into melting glaciers and adapting seabirds, and by the museum’s own facilitators, who brought into focus the experiences of Arctic indigenous people and threats to ocean life in the face of ongoing social and environmental changes. All in all, the day was jam-packed with fun and learning, not just for the young visitors, but for all those involved. A massive thank you to everyone who attended and everyone who helped out from UKPN and the National Maritime Museum – we look forward to seeing you all again next year!
Edmund Lea, UKPN Festivals Team
Polar Week: Reflections on UKPN Festivals
Background to festivals
The last 2 years have been somewhat uncertain with the pandemic, but the UK Polar Network (UKPN) festivals team have been busy as ever organising online events, as well as gradually returning to in-person ones. There are multiple reasons for UKPN hosting festivals, including delivering scientific communication to the general public and providing a platform to early career researchers to develop their networks and experience.
UKPN at the National Maritime Museum
In October 2021, coordinators Chloe and Connor organised a festival facilitated by the National Maritime Museum (NMM) in Greenwich, London, with around 10 UKPN volunteers delivering science talks, hosting workshops and guessing where the Titanic sank over a 4-day period. The talks included the volunteers discussing their career as a researcher and polar impacts in a changing climate, with workshops incorporating polar adaptions, glacier flow (cornflour and water!) and dressing up as a polar scientist in field kit.
Each day started at around 9 am and ended at 4 pm with events running simultaneously. At any one time, the UKPNs 3D polar maps were being adored on the ‘Great Map’ section of the museum, while downstairs talks were taking place, glaciers constructed and animals were being forged by children with some rather interesting adaptions! Seeing the children engaged with the events left us with a ‘this is why we do this’ kind of moment and hopefully, some will remember their experience and be encouraged to continue the passion we saw over the 4 days.
This was our first in-person event since the pandemic struck and we received fantastic feedback from the museum saying visitors returned each day for our activities, bolstering their numbers as well as increasing our visibility to the general public. It would be remiss of us to highlight this event without a mention of our fantastic volunteers who developed materials and ideas prior to the event, as well as delivering the content. We had a range of people, including undergraduate and postgraduate students, PhD and postdoctoral researchers and teachers. For a lot of our volunteers, it was their first experience delivering outreach and they took to it like a duck to water! The reason we’re mentioning this is because we offer volunteering positions all year round to help with science festivals and if you’re interested, please do get in touch and/or keep an eye out on our mailing list for opportunities.
Upcoming festivals for UKPN
Just recently, we hosted 3 online events over 2 days at the Cardiff Science Festival in February 2022. In June of this year, we’re headed down to the Cheltenham Science Festival to deliver 5 polar workshops to both school and home-schooled children, including albedo experiments, Antarctic food webs and a changing Arctic.
Due to the success of the NMM event, we are currently working on making the event an annual one where UKPN can utilise the fantastic space of the museum and have a permeant base for delivering outreach, so stay tuned!
Some of the previous events we have hosted activities at:
- British Science Festivals (Birmingham, Aberdeen Newcastle)
- Regional Science Festivals (Dundee, Southampton, Cardiff, Edinburgh)
- Blue Dot Festival
- World of Music Arts and Dance
Get in touch
We strongly encourage organisations who are interested in UKPN delivering outreach to their audience to get in touch with us (festivals@polarnetwork.org). As said previously, our volunteers are often the highlight for both the festival and the general public delivering superb scientific communication, so if you are interested in any opportunities, once again get in touch with us, we would love to hear from you!