WollatonScienceAnyone who thinks there’s a lack of interest in the STEM subjects clearly didn’t attend Science in the Park 2017 at Wollaton Hall on Saturday.

The difficulty we had in finding a parking space on arrival was mirrored in the number of people vying to get their hands on the interactive exhibits inside the hall.

But before we headed up to the hall we stopped by the Nottingham Industrial Museum housed in the ground’s stable block.  As well as all its usual exhibits, the museum also had a few special experiments available to take part in in support of British Science Week and Luke and Willow were able to have a go at generating their own electricity and seeing what their voices look like.

Luke’s favourite exhibit was definitely the model railway and I think we only managed to pry him away thanks to the operator noticing and taking a short break.  Willow is a fiend for phones and mummy and daddy quite liked playing with the rotary ones on display too where the reminder of the dialling clicks made us nostalgic for a time you could answer the phone without the threat of a PPI sales pitch being on the other end.

The last Sundays of the month are know as Steaming Sundays here where their collection can be viewed in full operation so this is one for our list of places to return to.

We then rushed up to the hall through the rain that arrived earlier than forecast proving meteorology at least is far from an exact science.

We learnt about DNA, the way light travels and phosphorescence, walked through the hall’s natural history exhibits and made dinosaur masks.  Mummy overheard something about a gin and tonic experiment and had been quite prepared to fight her way through to the front of that table if Faith hadn’t decided at that point that milk was a more appropriate afternoon tipple.

Presented as part of British Science Week 2017, Science in the Park lived up to its “something for all ages” promise, kept us entertained for several hours and had a lot more to offer that we didn’t get to – including the chance for young scientists to present their own experiments – and it was free (there was a charge for car parking and a small entrance fee for the industrial museum) so we’ll be sure to look out for the event again next year, although it’s clear there’s the demand for it to be more than an annual occasion.

Do you have a budding palaeontologist in your house?  Wollaton Hall will be playing host to a world exclusive Dinosaurs of China exhibition this summer.  Click here for further information.