Five members of the MINE Research Cluster spent a lovely Sunday last week (12 March 2023) at the Dorchester Museum to showcase our research to curious families at the Family Science Day. The Family Science Day is part of the Dorchester Science Festival, both organised by Prof Genoveva Esteban (BU) in collaboration with Emma Scott (Dorchester Town Council), the Thomas Hardye School, and the Institute of Physics, with funding from the EU-Interreg project SAMARCH, the Royal Society of Biology, the Institute of Physics and CapeFarewell.
The MINE Cluster had two large desks at the event to talk about two aspects of our research. Dr Xun He, Ozgu Ozluk, and Irem Caliskan engaged families, especially kids, with brain models and EEG caps (for recording electric brain activities) and explained what a brain does in our life. Prof Fred Charles and Charlie Lloyd-Buckingham let our young audience experience our research projects in a virtual environment. The integration of EEG and VR in our research at MINE sparked a great interest in the audience about studying brain functions during social interactions.
We arrived early to set up the two large desks and took the chance to take a “family photo” (below). Very soon, the hall became busy with people coming constantly to us to learn about brains, try EEG caps, and play in our VR environments. Long queues quickly started (especially at the VR desk) and remained a constant scene most of the day!
Emma Scott, the organiser from Dorchester Town Council, also visited our desks. We had a lovely chat about what we are doing in the Cluster and some topics in neuroscience and psychology. Emma had to wait a while before she could get the chance to play with VR (due to the queuing). It was great to finally meet Emma in person – the planning for us to participate in the Family Science Day started in 2020, but unfortunately the event was cancelled due to the pandemic. I am sure we will happily see Emma again next year!
Below are more photos showing busy activities and happy faces on the day (photo credit: Dorset Bays):
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