Family Fun Day Feb. 18th

Peter Childs and Diane Brewster went along to represent InQbate at the inaugral event of the Brighton Science Festival .  This was a "Family fun day" called "Big Science Sunday" held at Komedia in the Laines.  Families came for the day to take part in a variety of activities as well as to hear talks on stage from a series of well known authors. These included Ben Goldacre (from the Guardian's "Bad Science" column) and Elaine Morgan (of the "Aquatic Ape" hypothesis).

Peter and Diane ran a "Creativity Cafe" using a "Bauhaus style" design activity - participants used a viariety of shapes to design a domestic appliance.  They were not told what appliance they were designing, just the rules about which shapes (representing parts of the appliance) should be touching or connected.  At the end of the exerise all was revealed - they had created a new-look vacuum cleaner.  Most participants stayed for a discussion about the difficulties of being innovative in designs for familiar products, and the activity clearly was popular with all ages.

Two keen participants

It was a packed day with very litte time to look at the other activities and stalls - although both Peter and Diane discovered a hidden talent for Dowsing - neither got to hear any of the talks.  There was a good Sussex University presence at the event, with many of the helpers drawn from its student body, and a few familar Robots on the other side of the hall.  We also got visits from some present and former Sussex product design students, one of whom was happy to talk "product design" wth a sixth form student interested in it as a career.

Some of the finished designs displayed on the wall