Since I’ve got to the blogosphere a little later than the others, I’ll briefly introduce myself.  I am the outreach officer for the physics department which means I organise physics events for local schools and the community.  This ranges from workshops in schools, to talks from our academics, to our Science Circus day for families.  As with most people who work in science communcation, I am moving into one of our busy periods as National Science and Engineering week is next week.  There are events happening all over the country on lots of different aspects of science for all ages and abilities.

At Surrey, we have a special extended range of our science and engineering sixth form lectures as well as an evening lecture on a local radio telescope array.  Several of us are also going out into local schools to add to their programmes for the week.  Thursday has proved to be the popular day this year with requests from 6 separate schools for that one day.  Sadly quantum superposition has not yet enabled me to be in that many places at once so we’ve got lots of staff and students involved in going out to schools.

National Science and Engineering Week is a great opportunity to get everyone involved and interested in science, regardless of age.  I’ve always been fortunate that my mother’s birthday always falls during the week providing lots of free events to take her to for a birthday treat, as my mother responds to science activities like a kid in a sweet shop.  This kind of enthusiasm for science is exactly what all these events are designed to generate to open access to science to everyone, not just those who are still studying it.

Use this week to spread the science joy among your friends and family.  Find some of your local events and go along.