Did you join us for Discovery Day?! Thank you to everyone who was involved and as our flagship public engagement event, we could not have made this happen without the support of the incredible Crick community. The day was a huge success thanks to the culmination of nine months' work from both the Public Engagement team and scientists alike. Take a look at how it went ...

The return of Discovery Day

After much anticipation, Discovery Day returned on Saturday 20 July 2024. The day kicked off with a relaxed opening for families who would benefit from a quieter environment to enjoy the space. From 11:00, we ramped up to welcome families from across Camden and beyond to enjoy a day of jam-packed science fun! Outside, families swivelled their hips as fast as a Crick centrifuge in our hula hoop zone, and enjoyed henna, a pedal-powered smoothie bike and science-y face painting. Crick scientists hosted activities such as "Fantastic bugs and how to fight them", which explored the differences between viruses and bacteria, and "All about cells", an interactive game exploring stem cells, created by the Human stem cells and neurodegeneration lab.

Inside, families were treated to a selection of hands-on, brain-related activities, designed to illuminate our current exhibition, Hello Brain!. This included testing out the rubber hand illusion, identifying the super smellers among us and finding out more about different invertebrate brains. For our under-five visitors, the soft play area was a massive hit. Our other inside activities included "Guess what?", highlighting the hard work of the Library & Information Services team, and "Crick News", which saw the Communications team invite our young visitors to interview Crick scientists on-screen. 

There was also the "Super signallers challenge", "Adventures in the cell cycle" and "Immune cell avengers" – all developed by labs here at the Crick. In our Weston Discovery Lab, families could explore screen printing with our friends from the People's Museum Somers Town and make a stem cell potion at the "Body builders" station. Each 90-minute session was rounded off with our Science Magic Show – a treat for adults and children alike! 

If that doesn't sound wonderful enough, hear what some of our Crick volunteers had to say:

It definitely gives a greater appreciation for the larger picture of why we do research. Sometimes we can get quite bogged down in the daily nuisances, so it's nice to see that people are interested and curious to learn about what we do.

It helped me realise it's not all about work in the lab, you also have to get others excited about it! Especially the future generations.

It sounds scary, but once you get going it's really fun and you get into a rhythm of talking and doing the activities with the kids.

It is a lot of work and training, but very rewarding.

It was a really lovely event and so well organised, I'm so glad I was able to be a part of it!

It was very good. I think it should be done yearly. It certainly brought the public closer to understanding what this huge building is and how the science done here is to better human health and condition.

Article edited from initialpublication on CrickNet by Emily Robins