After a long hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Lewes STEM Fair came back on Saturday 11 November at Lewes Town Hall. Over the four hours the fair was open, it welcomed almost 1200 visitors, mostly families with young children.

The Lewes STEM Festival is led by Stephen Wilkins, Professor of Astronomy and Public Understanding of Science, and founder of Curiosity Sussex a local science education charity which organised the event.

This year’s festival brought together 30 exhibitors from the University, the NHS, local businesses, and community organisations to enthuse the next generation with all the fantastic STEM work going on in the local area. Visitors also had the opportunity to hear about cutting-edge research carried out at the University of Sussex and take part in experiments and engaging hands-on activities for the whole family.

A team from the Astronomy Centre in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences were promoting their work on the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope. Visitors had the opportunity to talk to scientists about their discoveries and learn more about the technology which underpins the telescope.

Dr Charlotte Rae, from the School of Psychology, explained to visitors how she and her team are helping organisations to adapt their work and measure the success of a 4-day week trial. At the fair, attendees guessed how much staff productivity, burnout, and sleep changed after switching to a 4-day week, then revealed the findings (spoiler: improvements to all three!). Younger attendees coloured in brains to represent how they feel when they’re tired and need a rest. The Sussex 4 Day Week project is continuing to help employers to optimise work schedules. Go to the project website for more information on how to take part and get support with running a 4-day week trial.

Visitors also had the chance to make Ooblek!, challenge themselves to complete a puzzle faster than a gorilla with Professor Gilly Forrester (School of Psychology), and learn about quantum chemistry and quantization from Professor Hazel Cox and her team (School of Life Science).

PhD student Rhiannon Armitage and her supervisor Professor Martin Yeomans used the STEM Fair to run a short experiment to further their understanding of how liking for different tastes and foods differs across ages and within families and relates to wider eating behaviours, food choices and personal characteristics. Participants were asked to taste and rate their liking and familiarity of different foods and drinks (e.g. a sweet drink, orange juice, chocolate, a crisp and a gummy sweet), then complete some questions on areas thought to be related to liking for these tastes. Finally, they classified participants according to their sweet-liking phenotype using the Sussex Sweet Taste Test.

Rhiannon remarked: “Families seemed to have fun taking part together and talking about what tastes and foods they did and didn't like. Without a doubt, the discussions with had with families about their wider taste, food and eating experiences after they took part was the highlight for us all!”

Photo Gallery

Click on the image below to view some of the photos from the event.