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Free Family Fun At Peterborough STEM Festival 2018

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For the third year in a row children from 5-16 and their families will be able to enjoy a free day of fun. And learn about science, technology, maths and engineering at the same time. Peterborough STEM Festival 2018 is the biggest event yet, with more than 3,000 people expected to attend the KingsGate Conference Centre on Saturday 13th October.

There are loads of reasons to attend. The speakers include TV presenter Maddie Moate and Horrible Science author Nick Arnold with interactive shows. Along with mathematician Katie Steckles, futuristic fashion from KonichiwaKitty, and Tom Rocks Maths.

Peterborough STEM Festival 2018

And there are loads more exhibitors with things for everyone to enjoy. Main sponsors Anglian Water and BGL Group have interactive engineering and tech-based escape rooms. There’s a Sahara Force India F1 car and simulator provided by Codem, forensic science with University Centre Peterborough, a Mad Science show in collaboration with Anglian Water, the RS Components Titan II truck full of the latest technology, and more.

There’s retro gaming, 3D fantasy worlds, building the best paper plane, an introduction to coding, making your own musical glove instrument, hands-on science experiments cartography and map-making, building bridges and learning about amphibians and reptiles with a VR experience. And probably other activities that aren’t listed above.

Check out the videos below for some of the highlights from previous years:

Peterborough STEM Festival 2017:

Peterborough STEM Festival 2016:

Peterborough STEM Festival is involved with Ada Lovelace Day. Which is a global celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. It’s founded and organised by the team at Digital People in Peterborough, a non-profit group originally set up to run a monthly tech meetup in the city. And it’s supported by some great sponsors, including Anglia Water and BGL Group. Not to mention a tremendous bunch of volunteers who give up days, weeks and months of their time to enable the Peterborough STEM Festival to happen.

There’s also a growing calendar of related fringe events, including a Schools Challenge Day, First LEGO League and STEM Roadshow.

To find out more about attending, sponsoring, exhibiting or volunteering now or for future events, check out the Peterborough STEM Festival website.

And to find out about attending, sponsoring, presenting or volunteering with Digital People in Peterborough, then go to the DPiP website.

Peterborough STEM Festival 2016

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Peterborough is a somewhat strange place. It seemingly existing in the middle of a triangular vacuum created by Cambridge to the south, Norwich to the east, and Leicester to the west. A cathedral city home to historic discoveries like those at Flag Fen, it’s mostly known for having an effective ‘Parkway’ dual carriage ring road and massive warehouses for the likes of Ikea to get easy access down the A1M.

And despite the rich history of the area, it’s too easy to be blinded by the new town developments of the 1960s and 1970s which saw tonnes of concrete poured into the centre of Peterborough, and large housing developments around the outside.

Which is a lengthy way of explaining why so many good things about the city are largely unknown unless you live there. In addition to some good pubs and restaurants, there’s lots of outdoor space and sport. And over the past few years, there has been big investment and growth in technology.

Peterborough STEM Festival 2016

And having lived in Peterborough until recently, that’s why it’s so cool to see a STEM Festival launching in the city on October 1st, 2016.

If you haven’t heard the term STEM before, it stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. And the day is a free family-friendly event to encourage more children into following those subjects – particularly girls who are generally under-represented.

The day has been entirely organised by volunteers who largely come from the monthly Digital People in Peterborough meetup group (disclosure: I co-founded it several years ago, and then let better people actually run it while I moved 120 miles away).

And blimey, does it look interesting! If you, your friends, or family are a tiny bit geeky. Workshops include playing with Raspberry Pi and MakeyMakey boards (including making your own arcade game), speakers include physicists, mathematicians explaining game theory and more, and there are other exhibitors and demonstrations including robots etc.

Peterborough STEM Festival

So basically it’s a chance to embrace your inner geek in a free and friendly environment. You do need to register for the free tickets in advance so the volunteer team can manage numbers etc, and you’ll also need to book up for some of the workshops as they’ll probably be pretty popular…

But if you’re anywhere in the vicinity, then check out the Peterborough STEM Festival website and make some plans.

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