The Glorious Return Of Peterborough STEM Festival 2024
I’ve been busy catching up on work due to health issues recently, so it’s taken me a little while to get around to sharing my thoughts on the glorious return of Peterborough STEM Festival 2024.
I’ve been variously involved as a volunteer, organiser, the co-founder of the DPiP CIC that runs the event, and the partner/support animal for Liz, who takes on all the boring and arduous project management tasks are essential, but that no-one else wants to do. And after the first event was launched by friend, inspiration and former DPiPer Tia in 2016, it’s been an integral part of the year for my family.
So a four year enforced break due to a global health crisis had a massive impact. But not only is STEM Festival back, it’s also as popular as ever, with a huge number of local families (more than 2,000 people) coming along to try out experiments, see exhibits and speakers, and hopefully be encouraged to explore the world of science, technology, engineering and maths.
As a TL/DR, it was amazing to be back, seeing the enthusiasm of the hard-working volunteers and exhibitors reflected in the children, whether that was interacting with SPOT, the Boston Dynamics robots dog which was part of the Schools Aerospace Career Programme area alongside drone simulators and VR, or performing a simple experiment with crayons, paper and water, among a selection organised by Kinetic Adventure. And then there was GPUTC with F1 in Schools, Perkins, Anglian Water, Wandimo, Geology Rocks, talks by Dr Sam Gregson and Scott Steele and so much more.
Not only was the event at a new venue (the impressive ARU Peterborough campus), but I bumped into a surprising number of returning visitors considering how many children will have potentially moved into university or work since the first event.
It’s been a tough time for a lot of people for various reasons, and the challenges of putting on a free event, finding sponsors, exhibitors, and volunteers has never been more difficult. But seeing children open-mouthed at some of the exhibits, or wowing people with their own impressive knowledge certainly makes it worthwhile.
What makes it even more impactful for me has been seeing my son go from a relatively young volunteer largely following me around to try and get as much time on the retrogaming machines as possible, to watching him as a young man providing emergency cover for one of the short-staffed exhibitors. Definitely a proud dad moment, and I’m not sure I was up to his standards when I covered for his late lunch break.
It’s funny how a single day can re-energise everyone, and I know a lot more things are already being planned for both Peterborough STEM Festival and Digital People in Peterborough in the coming months, partly because I’m stepping up my involvement once again.
So if you have a young family of potential STEM adventurers, I’d definitely recommend keeping up with the Stem Festival website and social media accounts, and the same for DPiP if you’re involved in the digital and technology fields in the area.
