November 2013 NUI Galway’s Cell EXPLORERS at the Science & Technology Festival

Introducing children and their families to the fascinating world of how living things work!

Do you ever wonder how living things work? Or what they are made of? Or how scientists study living things and how this can help us? Cell EXPLORERS, part of the Bio-EXPLORERS science outreach programme based in the School of Natural Sciences at NUI Galway (www.nuigalway.ie/bughunters/), answers all these questions and more!

On the final day of the Galway Science and Technology Festival, Cell EXPLORERS will present two workshops in NUI Galway. The Cell EXPLORERS Show will lead children and their parents through a series of interactive workstations where they will learn about the workings of the living cell and the instructions that control it.

In the second workshop, The School of Natural Sciences Next Top Model, families will get a chance to interact with the NUI Galway researchers and learn about the model organisms they study and why they study them. Then decisions will have to be made and votes cast to crown the inaugural School of Natural Sciences Next Top Model organism!

Do not forget to book your free ticket on the Galway Science and technology Festival website (www.galwayscience.ie) and make sure to come and join us on the 2013 Galway Science & Technology Festival Exhibition day on Sunday 24^th November where you too can become a Cell EXPLORER!

As well as interactive workshops, the Cell EXPLORERS team of volunteers is running a Road show. The Cell EXPLORERS team of volunteers has travelled over the past year and visited more than twenty 5^th and 6^th primary school classes, introducing over 600 local school children to the excitement of working in science. This success has allowed the programme to be granted key prestigious funding this year.

This year the Cell EXPLORERS Roadshow is travelling to schools outside of Galway city, those schools that rarely receive science show visits. Funding from Science Foundation Ireland’s Discover Science & Engineering Programme Award, and the support of the Galway Science and Technology Festival, means that the Roadshow will reach another twenty primary school classes this autumn culminating during Science week and the Galway Science and Technology festival.

Further funding from a Wellcome Trust People Award is allowing new school visits to be designed and implemented by Biochemistry undergraduates as part of their degree course. Also, for the first time, Cell EXPLORERS is visiting infants, 1^st & 2^nd classes in an exciting collaboration with Naomi Lavelle, of Dr How’s Science Wows. The “Little Cells” project is funded by the Galway Science and Technology Festival and introduces these young children to the different kinds of cells in our bodies in a fun and interactive way. Make sure you explore the extraordinary with Cell EXPLORERS this year!

About the Wellcome Trust

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. The Trust’s breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. It is independent of both political and commercial interests. www.wellcome.ac.uk

- Ends -