From bronchial ball games to pipe cleaner DNA, children and their families explored Imperial Festival.

This year, the Festival featured the Hands On Zone, a new dedicated area for families set amongst the bluebells in Princes Gardens.

Children donned lab coats and safety goggles to learn about what makes up an element.

The young scientists learned about neutrons, electrons and protons, and made some model atoms by putting different numbers of marbles and pom-poms into a small pot.

Young visitors had fun with bubbles at the medical imaging stand. Demonstrating a technique used to deliver drugs to specific parts of the brain, children held bubbles made with dry ice which popped with a puff of smoke.

Children also learned about surgical techniques, manipulating small beads in petri dishes inside a model torso using a video feed. 

Across the tent, the Breathing Together area – a partnership between Imperial researchers and OKIDO – offered a range of activities focused on lung health and breathing.

Children played a bronchial ball game, trying to get good bugs into the lungs through the alveoli, and made model lungs out of paper bags and straws. Messy Monster, the star of the CBeebies TV programme, Messy Goes to OKIDO, made appearances throughout the weekend.  

Across the Festival

All the zones at the Festival offer activities for the whole family to explore.

The Superbugs Zone was already buzzing just 15 minutes after opening time. Children made their own models of bacteria, with plasticine for the plasma membrane and pipe cleaners for DNA.

Children put four mini robots to the test in the Robot Zone in a game of robo-football.

In the Cure-iosity Zone, children were drawn to the Game of Genomes stand, offering the chance to extract DNA from fruit and build DNA models from gummy bears.

In the marquee next door in the Enginuity Zone, children gathered for their chance to create their own squiggle machine.