Trio Sci Cymru

• Available on request
• More than one day
• Available in Welsh

Trio Sci Cymru is a pan-Wales STEM Engagement programme funded by a European Social Fund and the Welsh Government's National Science Academy.

Cardiff University is a joint beneficiary of the programme and is working with 18 schools in the West Wales and Valleys regions to deliver science workshops over a three-year period.Over a three-year period, pupils aged between 11 and 14 at these schools will have the opportunity to participate in three different innovative STEM enrichment programmes that bring our cutting-edge research direct to the classroom.

Apothecary Bees

Led by Professor Les Baillie of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Apothecary Bees, introduces pupils to the award-winning Pharmabees project. They will learn about the importance of bees and other pollinators, the medicinal properties of honey and its potential to treat antibiotic resistant hospital superbugs. Pupils in Year 8 will become ‘honey detectives’, helping pharmacists identify the plants responsible for the antibacterial activity of University honey. In Year 9, they will isolate antibacterial compounds from the plants.

Chemistry in the 3rd Dimension

This project is overseen by Dr David Willock in our School of Chemistry. The workshop uses a portable 3D cinema to give pupils a chance to step inside a variety of chemical systems. It combines computational chemistry with state-of-the-art 3D projection to bring chemistry to life at the atomic level. Students will learn how properties of everyday materials are linked to atomic structure. The programme concludes with students designing their own computational chemistry experiments and analysing data obtained from a supercomputer simulation.

UniverseLab

In this workshop, Dr Paul Roche of the School of Physics and Astronomy uses space to engage students with science. Through a combination of 3D shows, virtual and augmented reality, robotic telescopes and hands-on workshops pupils will explore the Universe from their classrooms. They will experience how astronauts live and work on the International Space Station, and plan the future exploration of Mars. The remotely controlled Faulkes Telescopes will capture images of planets, stars and galaxies, which the pupils will monitor over the three-year period.

The project is led by Communications and Marketing. Activities are delivered by the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Chemistry and School of Physics and Astronomy. We have already selected all the schools we will be working with for this part of the project.

About the organiser

This activity is organised by Communications and Marketing. Contact us at thomasl63@cardiff.ac.uk for more details.