More pictures from the SATRO Festival 2011

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It’s the final countdown…

The festival is tomorrow! So it’s time for our final teaser… here are a few more of the companies who will be joining us at the Brooklands Museum in Weybridge. See you there!

MODERN WATER

Explore the properties of water – how many drops can you fit on a single coin?  Come and join in the Modern Water experiments – with surprising results!

AIR PRODUCTS

Blink and you’ll freeze! Confused? Come and find out what that means and more, in a series of exciting demonstrations illustrating the properties of liquid nitrogen.

BALFOUR BEATTY

Come along and see how the UK’s longest under land road tunnel is being built.  The 1.9km twin-bore tunnel taking the existing A3 road under the Devil’s Punch Bowl Site of Special Scientific Interest in Hindhead, Surrey is due to open to traffic this July.

Ask our engineers about working on this iconic £371m project and how we look after and enhance the local wildlife, and what we do to be good neighbours.

Another teaser…

The SATRO Festival is just over a week away! We hope you’re excited as we are. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been posting tasters of what to expect from the Working World Marquee (sponsored by CBSbutler).

Here’s the latest group of employers and what they have to show you at the festival!

NPL – National Physics Lab

NPL is a national institute that measures just about everything. Representatives from the NPL will be showing you just how crazy measurement can be – the ‘Dolls of Confusion’ will baffle conventional thinkers.

INSTITUTE FOR ANIMAL HEALTH

Combating virus diseases involves input from across the sciences.  IAH illustrate this with the recent successful defeat of the bluetongue virus – a killer of sheep – with contributions from the following specialists areas:  virology, entomology, molecular biology, epidemiology, diagnosis, immunology, pathology, mathematical modelling and meterology.  Take a look down our microscopes to learn more.

SURREY WILDLIFE TRUST EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

Get a really close look at flowers and invertebrates to see their structure and functional relationships.  Your first task is to catch your creature!

Another Working World Marquee teaser…

The SATRO Festival is fast approaching – and it’s time for another teaser! Here are just a few of the exciting exhibitors you can expect to find in the Working World Marquee, sponsored by CBSbutler.

NDS

NDS is responsible for a lot of the TV technology in your own home.The NDS exhibit this year involves 3D TV, including display and subtitling and Oona – an intuitive and integrated user interface that introduces contextual applications and social interaction on your TV. Find out what it all means at the NDS stand!

ROYAL HOLLOWAY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

Representatives from the Royal Holloway University of London will be transforming celery with hydrogen peroxide! Be prepared for bubbles and flashes!

SURREY SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY LTD

Right in the heart of Surrey, at SSTL, space hardware is being designed and built – and launched into space. Come and get some information on how to get into the space industry – ever wanted to be an astronaut? Now’s your chance!

SURREY SPACE CENTRE

In space no-one can hear you scream? Absolute rubbish! The Surrey Space Centre is ready to launch a mobile phone into space at the end of this year. The scientific implications are endless – come and see how it’s done.

LUCIS COLLEGE/HOLISTIC HARMONY COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY

Experience the unconventional side of science. Indian Head Massage is just one of many complementary therapies requiring a scientific qualification. Have a free Indian Head Massage while you learn about how to get qualified in complementary therapies!

Win a signed Brainiac box set!

Exciting news – our new Facebook page is now up and running! More importantly, we’re giving our Facebook fans an exclusive opportunity to win a pretty amazing prize, if we do say so ourselves!

CBSbutler, one of the main sponsors of the festival, is giving away a full Brainiac DVD box set, signed by none other than our resident celebrity and presenter of the show, Jon Tickle, to one lucky winner!

To enter, “like” the SATRO Science and Engineering Festival Facebook page and leave a comment on our wall, telling us the following :

-          If you could invent anything at all, what would it be and how would it benefit people?

The winner will be the entrant with the invention that’s the most imaginative and useful!

Closing date for entries is Monday, 20^th June, two days before the festival, giving our judges time to pick a winner, and the winner will be announced at the SATRO Science and Engineering Festival! Sign up for the festival here!

A peek inside the SATRO Working World Tent

The SATRO festival is only a month away, and in the build up to the big day, we’ll be giving you a sneak peek of what you can expect from the great businesses that have signed up for the Working World Tent! Here’s the first in our series of previews… sign up today to participate in these exciting activities, meet our celebrity guest, Brainiac’s Jon Tickle and much, much more.

WATES

Come and create your own building from start to finish in a real-life construction situation. Follow the processes from consultation and design, building to schedule, applying your knowledge and working together to solve problems to give you a taste of what it’s like to work in the construction world!

PROCTOR AND GAMBLE

Enter the innovative world of Proctor and Gamble, a world-famous company behind a whole load of your favourite household brands! You may have heard of ‘Wash and Go’ shampoo and we’re pretty sure you’ve heard of Fairy Washing Up liquid, which has recently celebrated its 50^th birthday!  Discover the latest findings into skin science and more at the Proctor and Gamble stand.

INSITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS

Civil engineers build the world around us, including large buildings and structures, sewers and energy plants, roads railways, harbours and airports. In fact, you name it, and civil engineers have built it! Come and take on our challenge to build a helipad using limited resources.

Have our fantastic companies whet your appetite? Check back soon for more updates on what you can expect from an exciting and educational day at the SATRO festival.

It’s festival time!

Preparations for the 2011 Festival of Science and Engineering are in full swing. And following the successes of last year, this festival is set to be a blast!

The festival has been running for eleven years and aims to offer school teams the best possible opportunity to show the high quality of their science and engineering projects to guests from education, industry, commerce and professional bodies. The only criteria is that projects must have been devised and built during the current school year and come from Year 9 science clubs, GCSE, GNVQ, Diploma, AS, A2 or other areas of work.

There will also be plenty of opportunity for the pupils to get involved with some weird and wonderful experiments in the Working World Marquee, sponsored by CBSbutler. Here are a few of the companies that will be exhibiting:

• Army Recruitment with a ‘Bridge Building’ theme
• Modern Water Plc with a ‘Water experiments  with surprising results’ theme
• Air Products with a ‘Liquid nitrogen’ theme.

We’ll be updating this blog regularly so stay tuned for the next installment where we will be revealing some of the other businesses taking part this year.

And if you are a school wanting to take part – it’s all free –click here for more details.

Interview with Jon Tickle

Take a look at our interview with Jon Tickle – why he got involved with the festival and his thoughts on the day

Pupils & teachers thoughts

Here are a few comments from students and teachers at the festival – sharing their thoughts on the day so far……

• The Magna Carta School

I came here with a team of five people and our teacher to exhibit our work and presentation on a security system for a company called transUK, which was made up by TRL. they have three main assets which are a big truck simulator, a HARRIS van and a computer server. Our job wasto make a security system and we were judged by some judges.We also got to look at other schools presentations which was fun and interesting. We look at some exhibits by companys like BP and Radio Eagle.

James Deller, Sam Smithers and Emily Craddock

• Jubilee High School

The projects and enthusiasm have been outstanding. It’s our first time here but it’s likely that we’ll come back next year – most of the students aren’t here at the stand, they have gone out looking at all the exhibitors and are totally absorbed by it all. It’s a fantastic day.

Mr Doxford .

• Heathside School:

Today is really fun and exciting, especially down in the tent with all the hands-on stuff. You can programme robots and turn custard into solids – I’d love to come to the festival again

• Rodborough Teechnology College

I liked this event! It was great with the variety of what was here. I like everything from the custard trick to the massage to the lego tech to the eagle radio! I came here because I was invited and was one of the first 12 to reply. This was a great trip for me and I will hopefully come here with a project next visit, if I get invited again.

 Jamie Bellenger

LEGO Robots

Take a look at our interview with Mel Martin, STEM ambassador talking about Qinetiq’s technology with LEGO robots: