Creating SPARKS, a national festival celebrating creativity in the arts and sciences and including the annual British Association Festival of Science, is being held in South Kensington, London SW7, until September 30. It showcases the latest in engineering, genetics, technology, design, dance, sculpture and exploration through hundreds of events, exhibitions and experiments in museums and institutions plus street performances on Exhibition Road.
Activities include: hands-on science and art workshops in the Royal Albert Hall for 4,000 eight to 13-year-olds; Kitsou Dubois dancing in zero-gravity at Imperial College; an online national woodlice survey; and Devious Devices, a national touring exhibition of automata inspired by 20th-century objects, ideas and developments. Programme hotline, tel: 0906 402 0022, ticket hotline, tel: 0870 842 2220,www.creatingsparks.co.uk Radar’s crucial role in saving us from defeat in the Battle of Britain, and in paving the way for modern technology, is uncovered in The Magic Ear at The Gallery, Malvern Library, Graham Road, Worcestershire. From computers and air traffic control to meteorology and the microwave oven, the story is told through historical artefacts, graphics and copies of wartime documents. Curriculum links include practical uses of the electromagnetic spectrum. The exhibition goes on tour from October 7. Free admission. Tel: 01684 561223
Engineering in Healh Week, a series of lectures to promote engineering to young people, takes place at the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Savoy Place, London WC2, November 6-9. Topics include: the senses (hearing and sight), the body (repairing the skeleton and rehabilitation), medical imaging and the body’s super highways (electricity in the body and the heart). There will be an accompanying exhibition with careers and courses information.
Helen Pope, tel: 020 7344 8405, hpope@iee.org.uk Trevor Baylis, clockwork radio inventor, is among the speakers at The Design and Technology with Science Education Show taking place at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, November 9-11. Much of the programme will cover the revised national curriculum orders. A Focus on Excellence section, organised by the Design and Technology Association, will be devoted to computer aided design work, and pupils will demonstrate their work in specially set up primary and secondary classrooms. Other displays include The British Model Flying Assocation and the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre with its mechanically-controlled automata. Free admission. ICHF Ltd, Dominic House, Seaton Road, Highcliffe, Dorset BH23 5HW, tel: 01425 272711, website: www.ichf.co.uk The Association for Science Education’s Centenary Meeting will be held January 4-6, 2001 at Surrey University, Guildford. ASE, College Lane, Hatfield, Herts AL10 9AA, tel: 01707 283000
