Rothamsted Festival of Ideas
The Widening Participation team had a fantastic weekend at the Rothamsted Festival of Ideas in Harpenden, North London on the 23rd and 24th June 2018.
The day started by getting all of our props (including a stuffed toy cow) to the edge of the sports field, a beautiful spot where visitors could walk around the stalls, get a photo sat on a tractor, have some lovely festival food, and meet the scientists of Rothamsted. In total 8000 people turned up to take part in the festivities, so it was a very busy but extremely enjoyable weekend.
Our activity discussed our 'mystery specimens'; bone and organs of animals that the visitors has to ask questions to figure out what they were, xrays, dairy cow pedometers and of course bandaging our toy animals! We had some fantastic visitors, the kids really enjoyed our stall and event the PCSO's got involved!
The theme of the event was agriculture, so stalls ranged from ' What is most important to you, when choosing your food?', so looking at insects under microscopes, and understanding the science behind cows burps.
We also met a very special dog, Archie, who had a life saving operation when he was a puppy to remove a blockage form his stomach. His owner came over to thank us, and tell us Archie's story. We are so happy to be able to meet people the RVC impacts in such a positive manner.
We were also very happy to supply fresh water to all the dogs in attendance over the weekend, which meant we got to give out plenty of pats!