STEMNET Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network

On 3rd October, I attended the Lab in a Lorry event at Ulverston Victoria High School.  The Lab in a Lorry is a mobile lab that travels round the country and gives children aged 11-14 the opportunity to explore science through hands-on practical experiments.  The Lab is staffed by a co-ordinator from the Institute of Physics and at least three local volunteers.  The Lab has three different experiments, each separated by a curtain.  The three different experiments are Optoelectronics, Resonance and Light Scattering. 

On arrival at 08:00, myself and the four other volunteers were given brief training on each of the three experiments and then we decided which experiment we wanted to lead.  We were allowed to swap around or stay with the same experiment all day; we choose the latter.  Myself and another volunteer, Steph, decided on the Optoelectronics experiment. 

There were 6 × 40 minute sessions throughout the day and the students got to try two out of the three experiments during their 40 minute session.  The children had great fun playing with the digital camera endoscopes to spy on the group at the other side of the dividing curtain and loved looking for the objects in the maze and trying to extract them with the various tools.  One boy complained when the bell for break-time went off – he wanted to stay in the lorry and continue extracting the objects from the maze!  There was also a medical dummy which had a hidden object inside which the students had to find and extract.

The day went really fast and was great fun.  The students were engaged with the experiment and appeared to be really enjoying themselves.