Last week I was fortunate to attend the NERC Into the Blue public engagement event in Manchester with the British Ecological Society.
Into the blue Manchester was held at the Runway Visitor Park at Manchester Airport and featured forty exhibits staffed by NERC scientists and associates, interactive activities, aircraft tours and live talks.
I volunteered for two days on the British Ecological Society stand with our ‘science busks’ – fun activities to share ecology with the public. Our most popular busk was the ‘Whose Poo?’ activity which features six model scats to match to the picture of the animal that makes them.
We also had a mushroom smell game with different ‘smells’ in pots corresponding to different species, Pollinator Top Trumps and a hand-held microscope to examine slides and other items.
There was useful public engagement training during our lunch breaks and I did manage to take the odd break to look at the rest of the stands, including a model of the new NERC research ship RRS Sir David Attenborough and an inflatable BoatyMcBoatface!
Inflatable Boaty McBoatface!
I also managed to get a last minute place on a tour of the NERC atmospheric research aircraft!
It was an exhausting but rewarding couple of days! Check out #nercintotheblue @BESRoadies on Twitter for more on the event and future public engagement opportunities with the British Ecological Society.
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