STEM outreach activities
Below is a selection of our recent STEM outreach activities:
Love Kingston
In 2016 and 2017 Kingston University supported Love Kingston which raises money for local charities. The Lab in a Lorry provided children with the chance to try their hand at a range of fun science activities and experiments when the state-of-the-art mobile laboratory opened its doors to families shopping in Kingston town centre.
Academics from the Faculty, STEM outreach staff and student ambassadors were on-hand to open up the Lab in a Lorry to the public in Kingston's market place on Valentine's Day as part of the annual Love Kingston charity event.
A steady stream of shoppers visited the lorry throughout the day to take part in heart-related activities. These included a competition to guess the sugar content of a jar of Love Hearts, a board game based around healthy eating for your heart and a guess-the-hormone challenge with the human anatomical model.
There was also the opportunity to learn more about the chemistry behind perfume and a chance to make chromatography butterflies.
Science fairs and clubs
Staff and students banged the drum for science at recent Big Bang Fair, showing thousands of school children how exciting and rewarding scientific studies and careers can be.
In the Faculty, we have been working with our partners and sponsors to engage with children's groups. The Royal Society of Chemistry recently supported 'Spectroscopy in a suitcase'.
The University's National Science and Engineering Saturday Club gives young people aged 14-to-16 the opportunity to study science and engineering in a fun and informal university environment, working with some of the country's leading practitioners and academics. The Saturday Engineering Club had been running for four years sponsored by The Sorrell Foundation.
The Faculty have just started a new collaboration with Primary Engineer, to encourage the next generation of engineers. A competition for young children to design and innovate is being run, and the university's engineering staff will be helping the winners build their inventions for a celebration event.
New Scientist Live exhibition
Kingston University's lab in a lorry was one of the top attractions on show at the 2017 New Scientist Live exhibition in London's ExCel centre.
Hundreds of science lovers were given a taster of the University's STEM equipment and outreach activities during the four-day event in the capital. Staff and students were on hand to speak to visitors about the project.
The state-of-the-art mobile laboratories are part of a scheme that sees academics from the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing working with University outreach officers to introduce pupils to innovative science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) activities at schools across London.
During the New Scientist Live event, academics and outreach officers gave demonstrations using HAL, the patient simulator robot, Lego Mindstorms robots and infrared cameras.
Visitors were able to examine insect specimens projected onto a big screen using a USB microscope while infrared spectroscopy and a nuclear magnetic resonance device for chemical analytics were also showcased.
Contact us
Please get in touch if there is an event or project you think we could help you with.
- For Lab in a Lorry visits
- For STEM Outreach Centre visits
- For anything else, please email schoolsandcolleges@kingston.ac.uk
