Xmaths activity packs and music festival safety award: News from the College

Here’s a batch of fresh news and announcements from across Imperial.

From Christmas-themed maths activity packs for local families, to Imperial-supported COVID safety at a music festival, here is some quick-read news from across the College. 

Xmaths activity packs 

Our local outreach and engagement teams in White City have prepared 1,400 festive science activity packs to inspire and educate local children near our White City Campus over the Christmas holidays.   

The packs contain a range of maths and seasonal activities for children aged 6-11, including flying reindeer, symmetrical snowflakes and UV light decorations. Pens, scissors and everything needed to complete the activities are all included.    

Assembled at The Invention Rooms, the College’s community innovation space at White City, the packs have been hand-delivered to more than 20 different local community groups and six local primary schools.  

Andrew Brooks, Public Engagement Programmer and Practitioner at Imperial, said: “We started making science activity packs during the pandemic when it was difficult to engage in person. We’ve found they are a fun way to support science learning at home, supporting families to learn, make and experiment together. This year’s festive packs are extra special because of the challenges so many of our local families are facing with the cost of living.”

The contents for the packs were developed by Andrew Brooks in the public engagement team. Packs also feature the work of students and staff at the College, such as Vanessa Madu and Nora Schmit, who worked with Andrew to develop a flow modelling activity using plastic bottles. 

The team at The Invention Rooms deliver a range of outreach and engagement programmes all year round to support local STEM learning. Activities include school holiday workshops, a Saturday Science Club, a maths homework club and a series of maker challenge programmes for young people to develop their tech skills and prototype new ideas.    

More information can be found on Imperial’s White City Campus community pages. 

Music festival safety award 

Imperial researchers who helped to develop an innovative LFT testing protocol for Standon Calling music festival have received a Best Production prize at the UK Event Production Awards (EPA) 2022. 

The team from Imperial’s Department of Primary Care and Public Health, working with the Centre for Human Health and Performance at UCL and the self-testing platform CERTIFIC, created a system where people could be tested for COVID-19 at home - with the self-testing supervised by professionally trained test experts and clinicians through real-time video calls. This meant positive cases were screened out prior to arriving at the festival and delays from testing at the entrance were avoided. 

The protocol allowed Standon Calling, a three-day family festival, to take place in the summer of 2021 before other such events were permitted, amid fears that they would cause super-spreader incidents for COVID-19. 

The EPA judges said that running the festival safely was a “considerable feat” during the COVID-19 pandemic and one that “set parameters within which other festivals could operate”. 

Read more about the award on Standon Calling’s website. Want to be kept up to date on news at Imperial? 
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