Oxfordshire Primary Schools fight it out to win Big Science Event 2015

24 June 2015

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Teams of budding young scientists from across Oxfordshire will be competing to win £1,000 worth of brand new science-themed Playforce playground equipment for their school at the grand final of the Big Science Event 2015 on Thursday 25th June.

The Big Science Event (BSE 2015) is a competition for primary school pupils which asks them to create their own science experiment or investigation, and present their findings to a panel of judges. After several months of in-school judging, 10 teams have been shortlisted to take part in the Grand Final and prize-giving day this Thursday at The Oxford Museum of Natural History. The teams will give presentations to the BSE 2015 judges, answered questions and display hand-made posters illustrating their findings. The initiative has grown from 17 schools and 2000 children participating in 2010 to 40 schools and 5600 children in 2015. The BSE 2015 celebrates its sixth anniversary this year and is co-ordinated by Science Oxford, a charitable trust which aims to engage young people with science in new and exciting ways.

Natalie Ford, Science Oxford’s BSE 2015 Coordinator, says: “We’ve been extremely impressed by the talented young school scientists taking part in this year’s Big Science Event. The quality of presentations has been better than ever and it will be difficult to choose a winner. Watching the children getting excited about their experiments and findings and thinking like scientists is so rewarding and we look forward to supporting this initiative for many more years to come.”

Speaking ahead of the BSE 2015, Emily Northin from Playforce, said: “Having supported the Big Science Event since 2012, we’re delighted to have witnessed more and more children getting involved and excited about science. It is so inspiring to see how passionate this region’s young people are about science and their teachers and headteachers should be very proud of them. We hope this year’s winners will enjoy using their new Playforce play equipment and will continue to enjoy the wonders of science.”

Finalists in The Big Science Event 2015 are:
Chandlings
Rose Hill
St Andrew’s
St Ebbe’s
St Swithun’s
Aston Rowant
Eynsham
Ferndale House
Long Wittenham
St Amand’s

To book a photo call, post-event photography and further information, please contact:
Jude Eades
Science Oxford
T 01865 810013

About The Big Science Event

The Big Science Event is a competition for primary schools, coordinated by Science Oxford. It was set up in 2009 to encourage more schools to give pupils an opportunity to design and carry out their own creative science investigations. In 2013, the competition attracted entries from 5000 students from 49 primary schools across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and West Berkshire. Science Oxford is an independent charitable trust that was set up ‘to encourage the pursuit of science and enterprise’. It has been working with local schools for nearly 25 years and each year involves nearly 20,000 local school pupils with its educational programmes.

About Playforce
Playforce is the UK’s leader in the design of innovative, curriculum-linked outdoor play environments for nurseries and primary schools. That means everything from timber trails to outdoor classrooms, musical play to science investigations. We are passionate about getting every child active and making the best use of the School Sport Funding, as well as using the outdoors to engage children in curriculum subjects such as maths and science.

About Science Oxford
Science Oxford is part of the Oxford Trust – an independent charity, established in 1985 by Sir Martin and Audrey, Lady Wood (co-founders of Oxford Instruments) to initiate and encourage the pursuit of science and enterprise across Oxfordshire and the surrounding region. Its mission is to encourage, enthuse and facilitate the study, application and communication of science, technology and engineering. Science Oxford is the public facing brand of The Oxford Trust.

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