TSM students presented at Royal Society Summer Exhibition

Presenting at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition

Jassel Majevadia talks abut presenting at the exhibition

As TSM students, we are exposed to a lot of science communication opportunities, and are encouraged to seek out these activities on our own. This one in particular, in my opinion, was one of the best activities I’ve taken part in, and I would consider it a huge success. This is because it was simultaneously quite challenging (you always forget that kids can ask pretty tough questions!) and also very rewarding. We managed to grab the attention of children as young as 4 or 5 to parents and grandparents.

Talking about non-Newtonian fluids was a great exercise in science communication, because there’s so much you can say, and yet, it’s a pretty difficult concept to grasp. Firstly, the idea of a non-Newtonian fluid is confusing if you don’t really know what a Newtonian fluid is! Then there’s the trick of explaining viscosity – how much resistance a fluid has – and whether viscosity actually changes. Some great examples are custard, quicksand and ketchup (ever wondered how you get ketchup out of the glass bottle?).

We were close to the entrance hall, so every newcomer got to meet us first (insert evil laugh here)... The youngsters were pretty quick to get their hands dirty in the corn flour solution, and may have ruined the carpet of the Royal Society’s front room, but they went away excited and ready for the rest of the exhibition. The banana piano and the cloud demonstration were also a big hit, and there’s a lot of interesting physics in there. So the audience were exposed to the physics of fluids, electricity and the concepts behind cloud formation. I think demos like this are the perfect way to enthuse and inspire children into science; it’s all about seeing something fascinating and asking question after question. All you need is for them to go away understanding one tiny concept and it will have made a huge difference for them – and that’s the rewarding part.