There’s blood on the kitchen floor! April 30, 2009

Posted by Dan Richards in National Science & Engineering Week.
Tags: Event Awards, University of Southampton
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This event was part of the University of Southampton Science and Engineering Day, which won the National Science and Engineering Week awards for Best Engineering Event, sponsored by ETB

 

If you came to the University of Southampton’s National Science and Engineering Event 2009, you would have been mesmerised by the massive numbers of activities for families to try.

 

This year the University of Southampton won a new award from the Engineering and Technology Board for the UK’s ‘Best Engineering Event’ for National Science and Engineering Week.

 

However becoming real-life investigators to solve the murder of a ‘famous celebrity chef’ is probably not what was expected by some attendees. But this is exactly what some of them did…

 

‘Blood on the Kitchen Floor’ was a completely new kind of event for the University’s Science and Engineering Day, in which children and their families watched a rather humorous reconstruction of the murder of a famous chef, scripted and acted by the Nuffield Theatre, before visiting labs in many different university schools to solve clues to the murderer’s identity using lasers, lie detection, GPS, robots, and DNA analysis.

 

Postgraduate students in the Faculty of Engineering, Science and Mathematics were at hand at each of the locations and had been trained especially in how to engage the children and present the activities in the context of the narrative.

 

The families were guided round by ‘special constables’ who were student helpers with police hats on. Everyone truly got into role… including the kids!  It bought science to life… it’s not every day young people get to solve the murder of a chef (a celebrity one at that!) and hopefully inspired everyone who came to look at science in a different way.

 

Attendees received a casebook to write their ideas and clues down as well as a badge to congratulate them for taking part.

 

The idea came from my work in schools as part of my PhD research I’m investigating why young people (especially girls) are not keen on careers in technology.

 

Reena Pau, University of Southampton

 

The concept of a murder mystery event was devised by Electronics and Computer Science PhD student Reena Pau. The funding for this event came from the Roberts Fund, which a grant for postgraduate training. The event not only taught kids about science but it also taught postgraduates about outreach.

 

So the big question is… who did it??

 

Come and find out! We may be holding another event so contact Reena (rp05r@ecs.soton.ac.uk) for more information.