Badminton School

Science Outreach

What is Science Outreach? 

Despite great progress over the past two decades, there is still a significant gender imbalance in the physical sciences – especially within Physics. Badminton School’s Science Outreach programme aims to help redress this imbalance in three key ways:

  • Providing a strong, positive role model for primary school age children of young female scientists engaged in exciting practical work.
  • Encouraging the uptake of STEM subjects within our community by building positive science based experiences.
  • Providing girls who wish to study science beyond A Level with a set of unique experiences they can use to support applications to higher education courses.

Our events are almost always aimed at both girls and boys. Girls need the inspiration of seeing young women doing exciting practical work and speaking confidently about Physics and other sciences. Meanwhile a key element of overcoming gender-based stereotypes in science is for boys to see that it is normal for girls to be engaged in practical science.


The outreach work we do delivers material with a deep level of engagement from girls in Years 10 to Upper Sixth and has three core components:

Liquid nitrogen shows for primary age school children. These are mainly based on low temperature physics in a lecture and demonstration format, with the girls, depending on experience, either helping with or conducting the demonstrations. In 2024-25 we visited 22 primary schools and delivered 28 shows to over 1500 local students. The demand is strong for these entertaining, engaging and inspiring shows and they have become and establish part of the Bristol STEM culture. Read some of the quote below from students, parents and teachers.

Primary school students have said:

It was shocking to see what nitrogen could do to other materials. I really like the one with the flowers. It was funny how we couldn’t predict how different materials would react with the nitrogen.

Mark

It was really fun. I liked watching the experiments. Crushing the flower was fun. It was full of surprises.

Eloise

I thought it was cool and exciting. The end when the balloon popped was the best bit!

George

Parents have said:

...she hasn't stopped talking about it - she loved every part of it! Thanks for sharing such amazing and fun science experiments!

She absolutely loved it and told me so many interesting and fun things! Wow! Thanks!

Teachers have said:

it was an absolute privilege to watch such an engaging science show from students at Badminton School... [it] really inspired a love of science and enthused our children.

It was 10 out of 10 from Tarragon class!

I just wanted to say how much our children (and staff!) enjoyed your visit. Thank you so much for travelling to see us - our children definitely benefited from the opportunity and are now more excited for secondary school science!

Rocket Workshops. Badminton Students also lead the delivery of engineering-based workshops. This new offer puts the emphasis on the practical design and test cycle with Badminton students coaching students from local primary schools to build and launch a rocket as far as possible. These have proven very popular with all involved and help to inspire the next generation of STEM professionals.

Participation in science festivals. We have been invited to present at numerous Festivals of Physics hosted by the Institute of Physics over the past ten years. More recently, as our reputation has grown, we have presented at the UK Big Bang (2019, 2022, 2024), the Cheltenham Science Festival (2018) and the Northern Ireland Science Festival in person in 2020 and remotely in 2021 – you can see our video on states of matter here:

Since 2016, the Science Outreach Team has been involved in several major festivals.  In 2019 we had our busiest weekend ever with one team at Jodrell Bank as part of the bluedot festival celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing, and another team in the Czech Republic appearing as CERN’s special guests at the Colours of Ostrava Festival.  In the summer of 2022, we will be participating in WOMAD for the sixth time and Green Man for the third.

Badminton School does not charge for outreach sessions as they are a key part of our Public Benefit work.


Submissions to the National Physical Laboratory for their teacher training material have been accepted and will gain 10 girls acknowledgement for their help.

Up to three papers may be published in the next year, with girls involved as authors in all three projects.  We hope to approach the National Physical Laboratory for help with one paper.

Read our two papers published in the peer reviewed Institute of Physics Journal ‘Physics Education’:

Demonstrating the Curie temperature in the classroom (co-written by the girls!)

Producing liquid oxygen in the classroom (girls acknowledged for helping prepare the article)