Science students dusted for fingerprints, observed ‘blood spatter’ patterns and checked out suspicious shoes at a ‘crime scene’ in Uxbridge College’s labs.
The investigations, led by Right Angle Events, were part of a range of activities for British Science Week (BSW).
Other highlights across the College included a visit from the great engineer Sir Isambard Kingdom Brunel - alias character educator David Hall – who came back to the future to talk to today’s young innovators.
There was also a paper bridge building competition, in which students were challenged to construct a load-bearing bridge from sheets of A4 paper. This event was led by Adrian Timpson, a former A-level student at Uxbridge College who is now a multidisciplinary Research Associate at University College London.
The events held during BSW, formerly National Science and Engineering Week, were supported at Uxbridge College by Nexen Petroleum UK Ltd.
Dr Alastair Mullins, Director of 14-19 Programmes at Uxbridge College and lead on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects, said: “British Science Week at Uxbridge College was a really inspiring event, enabling hundreds of young people to build on their existing knowledge and expand it in new directions too. This event is part of the additional support Uxbridge College offers students to help them make the best of the excellent career opportunities out there in science, technology, engineering and maths.”
Other speakers during the week included:
* Geographic profiler Dr Steve Le Comber from Queen Mary University Of London, who has developed techniques which analyse the locations of linked events - such as crimes, disease outbreaks, or shark attacks - to trace their origin.
* Professor Akram Khan, professor of particle physics at Brunel University and a world-leading researcher, who spoke about his work at CERN in Switzerland, home of the Large Hadron Collider.
* Dr Eve Abe, an ethnologist and zoologist who has worked on conservation of wildlife including elephants, rhinos and apes, and forest, in Africa.
* Professsor Mariann Rand-Weaver, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Quality Assurance and Enhancement) at Brunel University, who chaired the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) event.
