Families from Kidlington, Begbroke, Yarnton and the surrounding Oxfordshire area are warmly invited to get up close and hands-on with science activities at this year’s free Science Wonder Garden Party at Begbroke Science Park.
Science Wonder Garden Party 2024 will have live music, food stalls and a festival feel and is hosted by Oxford University Development, the joint venture partnership between Oxford University and Legal & General, alongside local groups, and departments and researchers from the University of Oxford.
The garden party will showcase exciting innovations from some Oxford University researchers, spin-outs and start-up businesses based at Begbroke Science Park, with hands-on science activities, talks and new technologies on display. The party will also include a free lunch from 12.30pm, with vegan options (first come, first served until the food runs out!).
Following last year’s successful event, the garden party will feature open labs and activities relating to the circular economy, cutting-edge Oxford University research and emerging technologies that could help us live more sustainably. It will be packed full of opportunities for all ages to take part – with an array of hands-on experiments and interactive demonstrations.
Local sustainability initiative Cherwell Collective, which runs Cherwell Community Larder and Climatarian Kitchen, sharing and supplying food and other essentials that would otherwise go to waste, will be running a pop-up surplus distribution version of its larder at the event.
Its Waste Innovation Station HQ (WISH) encourages the repair and reuse of non-food waste items, and the garden party will borrow equipment and kit from the Oxford Party Library service in line with this worthwhile circular economy ethos, while WISH partner Share Oxford will showcase a range of citizen science gadgets from its library of things.
In the run-up to the main event, two free Family Science Days were held in partnership with Cherwell Collective and WISH. These took place at Exeter Hall in Kidlington on 30 and 31 May and gave a taste of the garden party with fun activities relating to clean energy, smart materials and the environment.
Oxford University Development’s CEO, Anna Strongman, commented: “Central to our ethos is a commitment to open up opportunities for the public to experience the amazing research and technological advances coming forward from Begbroke Science Park and across Oxford University.
“We were delighted with the turnout for last year’s event and are pleased to be bringing this opportunity to the community again in partnership with the Begbroke Science Park team.
“We’re thrilled the event is now growing with the involvement of Cherwell Collective and WISH for these family science days in May, and again at the garden party in July. We’re really looking forward to welcoming people to each of the events.”
Activities at the garden party will include:
- Oxford Sparks goes live – talks and question and answer sessions with Oxford University researchers who have showcased their work through videos. Hear about brainwaves from Demi Brizee, unanswered pandemic questions from Cillian Gartlan, rhino IVF projects with Suzannah Williams, trekking Borneo’s rainforest for leopards with Chrishen Gomez and a live link to Bry Wilson in the British Virgin Islands to discover his research to save coral reefs from extinction.
- Spotlight on Engineering – Ted-X-style talks from researchers in Oxford University’s Department of Engineering Science about how their work is helping improve our lives, including Shreyank Narayana Gowda – on training machines to learn like humans; Joram Van Rheede – discussing how sleep impacts brain implants; Christopher Campbell – on whether gas can be used to reduce infection; and Pranav Thoutam – looking at how oceans can absorb carbon emissions
- Hands-on activities from scientists from Begbroke Science Park-based companies, including Adaptix and the Nekton Foundation.
- Lab tours, including the Materials Characterisation Lab
- The chance to learn about vaccines, immunology and neuroscience with activities from the Oxford Immunology Network, Pandemic Sciences Institute, and Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences
- Citizen Science with Share Oxford
- The opportunity to meet the team from TORCH (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities) to learn about how humanities and science are collaborating to shape our futures
- Art and ecology activities with Begbroke Artist in Residence Jaimini Patel
- Active travel experiments – from smoothie bikes to electric bikes, trails and fieldwork
- Music and more free activities for all ages.
We invite people to travel to the site sustainably – with free buses picking up in Begbroke, Yarnton and Kidlington, plus cycle routes.
We are partnering with Velocity Cycle Couriers – who provide ultra-low and zero-emission delivery services in Oxford – to encourage exhibitors to reduce car use and transport goods for the day via a shared electric van drop-off.
