Caithness International Science Festival 2013

[ScienceO3]

The 2013 Caithness International Science Festival will be running from March 19 to 23. This year's programme includes various public events, including "Art of Science" at Wick's St Fergus Gallery, science displays, a "space" Bookbugs session and a quiz at Wick Library, a bird feeder workshop at the Seadrift Centre at Dunnet, shorewatching for whales and dolphins with Whale and Dolphin Conservation and a free film screening of the award-winning documentary "Stem Cell Revolutions" at Thurso High School.

We will also be holdingfree public events at Pulteneytown Academy on Tuesday, 19th March @ 6.30pm and on Saturday, 23rd March from 12 noon at the Wick Assembly Rooms, where you can meet some of the Festival performers including Mr Bug, Bubblestrings and the Glasgow Science Centre's "Science Buskers" and "Blood, Bile and Body Bits". There will also be stargazing, Lego mindstorms, K'nex competitions and plenty of hands-on fun.

For more information visit www.science03.org (http://www.science03.org) and you can find us on Facebook and Twitter.

[ScienceO3]

Just adding some more information to the above - there's now a Festival display in Wick Library's foyer with quiz sheets and St Fergus Gallery have the microscopes set up for folk to come and view some amazing objects.

The Highland Council Countryside Rangers will be holding a bird feeder workshop at Dunnet Seadrift on Wednesday, 20th March at 6.30pm. The cost of this is £5 per family group and bookings are essential as spaces are limited (contact helen@kptechnology.ltd.uk to make a booking).

The film "Stem Cell Revolutions" will be screened at Thurso High School at 7pm on Thursday, 21st March and Professor Clare Blackburn of the Edinburgh Medical Research Centre will be on hand to answer questions from the audience.

Whale and Dolphin Conservation will be offering a Shorewatch session at Dunnet Head on Friday, 22nd March from 12 to 3. There will also be a free talk on how to identify various whale and dolphin species at Wick Assembly Rooms on Saturday, 23rd March at 11am, just before the opening of the Family Science Fun Day (free admission to this also).

There will be flyers popping up around town but if you would like any more information about the Festival in the meantime, visit our website www.science03.org (http://www.science03.org) or find us on Facebook and Twitter under "Science O3".

[ScienceO3]

With just over 1 week before the Caithness International Science Festival 2013 begins, we'd like to remind folk that there's a wide range of workshops and events on offer for all ages, as well as our normal schools programme. As well as our launch event on Tuesday 19th @ 6.30pm at Pulteneytown Academy, we'll be having a family fun day at Wick Assembly Rooms on Saturday 23rd from 12 - 4.30pm. There are also plenty of workshops, a film screening and an exhibition running at St Fergus Gallery showing the wonders of the microscopic world.

We also had a record-breaking 1,000 entries in our schools design competition and the Wick Youth Club are kindly displaying a huge selection of these at the club. The winning and runner-up entries can be seen on our Facebook page (under "Science O3").

[ScienceO3]

The science quiz that has been running in Wick Library for 3 weeks is entering its final days - the winner will be drawn on Wednesday and will receive a great "Ultimate Book of Science", so if you have a quiz form ready to drop into the box in the library foyer, please do so today and tomorrow.

A reminder also that if you'd like to book a place at the bird feeder workshop running at Dunnet's Seadrift Centre on Wednesday @ 6.30pm, please send an email to helen@kptechnology.ltd.uk

[ScienceO3]

Thanks to the 150+ folk who came to the launch at Pulteneytown Academy last night - we had explosions, gigantic smoke-filled bubbles, tortoises and lizards, star gazing, magnetic motors ... it was a great night and we hope you all enjoyed it and will join us again on Saturday.

A reminder that the Highland Council Countryside Rangers are running a "make your own bird feeder" workshop tonight at Dunnet Seadrift Centre @ 6.30pm - it's £5 per family group to cover materials and as spaces are limited, drop us an email at helen@kptechnology.ltd.uk if you'd like to reserve a spot.

There's also the free film screening at Thurso High School tomorrow night of "Stem Cell Revolutions", starting @ 7pm.

[ScienceO3]

Just a reminder that the free film screening of the documentary "Stem Cell Revolutions" is on tonight at Thurso High School @ 7pm. Professor Blackburn from Edinburgh Uni will be on hand for a q&a session after the screening Also, there's a Shorewatch session running at Dunnet Head tomorrow (Friday, 12-3) at the car park near the lighthouse. The Whale and Dolphin Conservation staff will be there with their giant binoculars, looking for whale and dolphin species and advising on how to get involved with the Shorewatch scheme. A Shorewatch info session will also run at Wick Assembly Rooms 11 - 12 on Saturday just before the fun day kicks off at midday. It's all free and everyone is welcome!

[ScienceO3]

Thank you so much to the 300+ folk who came today to the family fun day at the Wick Assembly Rooms. We hope you all enjoyed yourselves, we hope you got to see the shows you wanted and we are very grateful for the support of our local schools, organisations and STEM Ambassadors who came and gave their time today. See you in 2014!

[Neil Howie]

We had a great time, my daughter really enjoyed the "Mr Bug" show.

Well done, to all involved.

[Bill Fernie]

Photos from the Saturday Family Day at the Science Fair
http://www.caithness.org/fpb/2013/march/gallery.php?gallery=16

[Dadie]

We really enjoyed the opening night.
The kids love Mr Bug!
And he "helped" on snail disposal ideas....
My eldest loved the bubble show that came to school and I think the girls enjoyed the little time they had at the family day on Saturday (I had flu and stayed at home with the wee one) .