Q&A with Clare Bowman, a trustee at High Five
Tell us about your community group. Who is involved, and what sort of activities do you usually run?
High Five is a local charity supporting families in the community in Chorley, Lancashire with disabled children. All the trustees are either parents of, or involved through work with, children in this category. High Five was set up by two parents looking for places to go for support. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we ran events with families and group activities from bake-offs, walks and trips to the Eureka! The National Children’s Museum, this was certainly a popular family favourite!
What event did you run with the British Science Week grant? How did you use the funding?
With the Grant we received, we ran an event called ‘Gross Science’ which involved delivering boxes to our family’s home with interactive experiments. Full instructions were included, and so the experiments could be done again and again with household ingredients. From growing mould and how washing your hands repels germs, to stomach explosions using Coke and Mentos, our experiments caused a lot of excitement and laughter. The event was a huge success and produced many budding scientists.
What was the lasting impact of your event? How has your community group continued to engage with science after British Science Week?
We will be continuing to run science events as part of our ongoing events and activities, as it always fills up fast and the children fully engage. We ran a ‘Weird Science’ event last year, but on a smaller scale, and everyone who attended this jumped on the British Science Week event and requested the Science Week activity packs.
What tips or advice would you give to community groups thinking of applying for a Community Grant for British Science Week in 2022?
Go for it! The experience your group will get from engaging in science will be amazing; there are so many different levels and access to information. Science is always going to move life forward and continue to amaze.