NI Science Festival to deliver free education

The NI Science Festival returns for a fortnight of wonder and intrigue from Monday, February 15 – Sunday, February 28 with a huge public programme of over 100 online events covering everything from the natural world, our planet, and the vast expanse of space to engineering, robotics, physics, the mind and body, food and much more.

Alongside its public offering, the festival has developed a dedicated programme for schools and educators which will run online from Monday, February 8 – Friday, February 12 and hopes to make distance learning more engaging and exciting for students.

Available to schools and educators for free, the programme boasts over 40 events.

Among this year’s highlights is a Rapper’s Guide to the Solar System with festival favourite Jon Chase and the award-winning materials scientist and engineer Anna Ploszajski as she talks to pupils about the nail-biting story and surprising science behind swimming the English Channel.

Headlining this year’s schools and educators programme is astronaut Tim Peake, who will be in conversation with RTÉ’s Mark Langtry (aka Mark the Science Guy!). In 2015, Peake made history as the UK’s first European Space Agency astronaut to visit the International Space Station aboard Soyuz TMA-19M and accompanied by crewmates Tim Kopra and Yuri Malenchenko.

During his six-month mission he engaged more than 1.6 million school children across Europe through educational outreach from low earth orbit. In this special event, Tim will give a personal take on what it’s like to live and work in space and will answer a selection of questions submitted by pupils.

The schools and educators programme is supported by British Council Northern Ireland, Nerve Centre, Creggan Country Park, Armagh Planetarium, Belfast Zoo and more. www.nisciencefestival.com.

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