Science -- Your Future, Scotland's Future
SCI-FUN News
The 2011/12 Roadshow
a brief introduction

The SCI-FUN Roadshow is taking its unique collection of interactive presentations and over forty hands-on exhibits to school groups and public events across Scotland in 2011/12.

We remain committed to the concept of taking the experience of a science centre to venues across the country.

During the course of our 2009/10 and 2010/11 tours, we provided an online questionnaire for contact teachers to submit their opinions on various aspects of the Roadshow programme. We were successful in getting responses from the majority of these contacts, and used this information to compile our feedback reports.

Taking the SCI-FUN Roadshow to rural Scotland

How a visit works

Our equipment is transported in our 7.5 tonne lorry (shown above), from which we unload and set up the materials in an assembly or sports hall, usually in less than two hours. The hall needs to be about 15 × 20 m to comfortably accommodate everything, but we can adjust the layout according to the space that we have available.

After setting up, we train some senior pupil volunteers from the school, so that they can act as explainers during the sessions. The majority of the activities have information boards to support the S1/S2 pupils that we are visiting, as well the senior volunteers.

Once the training is completed, we are ready for the first group session of up to sixty S1/S2 pupils. Each session involves:

  • a thirty-minute science-based presentation;
  • a forty-minute period to interact with over forty exhibits;
  • a ten-minute subject choice talk; and
  • a twenty-minute science research-based presentation.

We can adjust these timings to suit the school timetable; a session will normally take a double period in the majority of schools.

Although we target the S1/S2 cohort – since these are the pupils that will be making their choice of subjects to study for the first time – all of our materials are designed to be appreciated by adults as well.

We repeat these sessions until the entire year group has had the opportunity to experience the Roadshow, and then we pack everything back into the lorry. Usually we are moving on to the next school within an hour of the end of the last session.

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