Derbyshire school pupils recently got the chance to enjoy the fascinating interactive mobile physics laboratory, Lab in a Lorry, which is on a tour of the region.
With its hands-on experiments and enthusiastic scientists and engineers, Lab in a Lorry is an entertaining and enjoyable way for young people to explore how real science works.
Created by the Institute of Physics, Lab in a Lorry is a on tour of the East Midlands’ schools, universities and public spaces. Three schools in Derbyshire – Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Ashbourne, St Anne’s Primary School in Buxton and Highfields School in Matlock – recently got the chance to climb aboard and try out experiments like bending wine glasses with sound and using water to extract oil from rocks.
Lab in a Lorry is part of the East Midlands Development Agency’s huge investment in STEM activities across the region. The tour is managed by STEMNET and supported by the SETPOINTS and volunteers from the Science and Engineering Ambassadors programme.
“Laboratory experiments can inspire important scientific and technical discoveries. Lab in a Lorry has been giving the young generation in schools an opportunity to see that experiments can be great fun and a source of learning. Simple things such as light experiments bring so much brightness and enjoyment to pupils. When they were leaving the lorry, I heard one of the pupils saying excitedly to the others: ‘That was wicked!’” Dr Caetano Peng, Science and Engineering Ambassador from Rolls-Royce