We'd like to extend a massive THANK YOU to everyone who got involved in British Science Week this year. From event organisers, to those who ran our virtual race, from those who became a citizen scientists, to anyone who downloaded our activity packs. We were inspired to see such an exciting and eclectic mix of people enjoying activities across the country.
Scroll on to see some of our highlights from the Week...
Events
We were thrilled that over 2,100 people pledged their events this year, with several hundred of you advertising them on Science Live. We gave out nearly 500 grants to communities, schools, and young people. It was inspiring to see the range of events on show across the UK and hearing all the wonderful feedback from attendees.
2,164 of you pledged your British Science Week events this year
Run to the Deep
3,500 adventurous runners signed up to Run to the Deep for British Science Week. The weather wasn’t on our side with the "mini beast from the east" rearing its head towards the tail end of the Week, but that didn't deter the 389 of you who made it onto the leaderboard.
A special shout out to ‘cherylanddev’ who managed to run down to the ocean depths in a super-speedy time of 29:35!
Did you miss the race this time around? Stay tuned, because we have some exciting news lined up. Watch this space…
A few of your fabulous #RuntotheDeep snaps
Citizen science target: SMASHED
We were completely blown away by the number of people who participated in this year's citizen science project with The Plastic Tide. To help clean up our seas, users had to tag pieces of litter spotted on drone imagery from around the country's shores.
We set an ambitious target of 250,000 image tags, only for it to be surpassed by day 3. We then set another target of 500,000 which was again, quickly beaten. We set a final target of 1 million, and we're now delighted to say that over 1,500,000 pieces of litter have been tagged.
Your participation helps provide invaluable research into our oceans. You have helped train an algorithm to automatically detect marine litter and ultimately help us both understand, and find a solution, to the plastic pollution problem.
The Plastic Tide is still open - get tagging!
Activity packs
This year's activity packs were themed around 'exploration and discovery'. They aimed to give an easy, hands-on way for teachers to get their classes involved in British Science Week. We loved looking at your pictures and hearing your feedback on them. We're thrilled to see they've now been downloaded over 72,000 times (and counting!)
While they are designed for British Science Week, many of the activities can be used towards gaining a CREST Award. Continue your students' journey by clicking here.
We put the activity packs to the test with a local Brownie pack earlier this year
In the press
We had 900+ pieces of media coverage this year, which reached a staggering 150 million people: an all-time-record for British Science Week.
A few highlights included...
- A piece on the Guardian about our commissioned research on Brits' recycling habits and misconceptions, which was the top viewed article that day
- Multiple appearances on BBC Breakfast and Sky News, including with The Plastic Tide team
- Inclusion in a piece by the Huff Post on 7 Practical Ways Parents Can Inspire Girls to Get Into STEM.
Matt Locke, our Deputy Chair and Katherine Mathieson, our Chief Executive, on BBC News & Sky News
On social media
We were also delighted to see the response to British Science Week on social media. We felt very popular over the week: 5.5k of you tweeted at us directly and an estimated 13k of you tagged #BSW18.
We loved seeing your #BSW18 images - keep them coming!
What next?
We hope you had a fantastic time and we'd really appreciate it if you took a moment to give us feedback. The form will take less than five minutes to complete, but will help us to improve and develop British Science Week for future years. Click here to fill out the form.
Thank you
With thanks to our partners and supporters, British Science Week 2018 is shaping up to be bigger and better than ever. To find out more about our partners and future opportunities, click here.