Blog posts
Design your dream house and WIN a Build it with Bob construction set!
Blogging science to life
Wed 13 March 2013,
To celebrate the launch of our new under-eights’ exhibit, Build It!, we’re giving budding builders, architects, designers and engineers the chance to design their own house and win a fantastic ‘Build it with Bob’ construction set!
Build It! is our brand-new interactive construction site, complete with hard hats, scaffolding and giant building blocks. Opening on 23 March, little ones can set to work to create their very own grand design - if on a slightly smaller scale!
To be in with a chance of winning a ‘Build it with Bob’ set, you need to design your dream house – the more imaginative the better! Entries can be drawn by hand or using a computer, and will be judged by At-Bristol’s Exhibitions team, who are currently putting the finishing touches to Build It!.
Each construction set contains everything you need to design and create your own structures, including real bricks, cement, blueprints and lots more. Once complete, the construction can easily be demolished by soaking it in water, so there’s no limit to the amount of designs you can build!
Over the same weekend, we’ll also be welcoming a very special visitor: Bob the Builder! He’ll be taking a well-earned weekend off from all his hard work to visit At-Bristol and we can’t wait to meet him! He’ll be making personal appearances at intervals on 23 & 24 March. Seeing Bob the Builder is included in our admission price.
Entries should be emailed to competition@at-bristol.org.uk, or posted to: Marketing, At-Bristol, Anchor Road, Harbourside, Bristol BS1 5DB, by 21 March – please include your name and email address or phone number on all entries.
Have fun creating your designs, and good luck!
Terms and conditions:
- Competition closes at midnight on 21 March 2013
- Winners will be notified by email on 22 March
- First prize is a ‘Build It with Bob’ construction set
- Runner-up prize is a set of M.Y building bricks
- Prizes will be available to collect from At-Bristol from 23 March
Celebrating Women in Science
Blogging science to life
Fri 8 March 2013, Written by: Steph, Bonnie and Nerys
Here in At-Bristol, we’re passionate about making science accessible to everyone – girls and boys alike! To celebrate International Women’s Day today, we asked three of our Live Science Team members which female scientists have inspired them:
Maggie Aderin-Pocock
Space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock was a guest speaker at a recent BBC training day that I attended for women that are experts in science. Her infectious enthusiasm for science is hugely inspirational. The best communicators are people who are not only knowledgeable, but passionate about their subject. Maggie has overcome everything she was told she shouldn't – female, black and dyslexic – and in turn acts as a fantastic role model for everyone who has even the smallest interest in following a science related path. – Steph Hoddinott
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell
“If we assume we’ve arrived, we stop searching, we stop developing”. This was stated by British astrophysicist Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell. She was an integral member of the team who discovered the first radio pulsars, a significant astronomical discovery of the twentieth century. As one of the few women actively studying science in school during the mid-twentieth century, Burnell is a pioneer in the realm of women in science. – Bonnie Buckley
Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner was a 20th century Austrian nuclear physicist. She made significant contributions to the discovery of nuclear fission – a process that can be used for power generation as well as for weapons. Although Meitner was the first person to spot the potential destructive power of this new discovery, she did not want to see it used as a weapon and refused a job working on the development of the atom bomb during World War II. Element 109 of the periodic table is named Meitnerium in honour of Lise Meitner and her contributions to science.
These scientists are not just role models for women; they are role models for everyone. Their research and their discoveries affect all of us, male or female. Science is for everyone. Whether male or female, we can all learn science, we can all do science and we can all enjoy science. – Nerys Shah
Thank you to Steph, Bonnie and Nerys for writing this blog – and for continuing to inspire our visitors every day!
Any Question Answered: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Blogging science to life
Wed 6 March 2013, Written by: Heather
Ross Exton answers your questions, including the classic: "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"
If you want Ross to answer your question - no matter how big or small! - next, then leave us a comment here, visit us on Facebook, or tweet us using #abAQA.
Volcano experts visit At-Bristol!
Blogging science to life
Thu 21 February 2013, Written by: Alice
Last week was half term for Bristol schools, with lots going on throughout At-Bristol. Over the holiday, Volcano Lab was supported by a team of 17 volcano experts from the University of Bristol. They kindly brought a giant model volcano which had been designed and built in collaboration with their partners at the University of Nottingham. A central tube of liquid has gas bubbles rising up through it, so visitors and volcanologists could observe and relate what they see to what’s really happening beneath a volcano.
.jpg "The experts brought their own volcano machine")
Throughout Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 February the experts were on hand to talk about their travels around the world studying volcanoes. They were happy to answer all kinds of questions about these amazing places, from ‘are there any volcanoes in the UK?’ (yes, but they are extinct now) to ‘what would happen if you fell into lava?’ (lava is so viscous you could walk on it, but at around 1000°C it’s incredibly hot and so falling in would not be good news!).
As well as enabling our visitors to find out more, the experts also helped our Live Science Team brush up on their volcanic knowledge:
From Monday until Friday the volcanologists returned to At-Bristol for an hour in the afternoon to share a demonstration and talk with even more interested visitors. Over the seven days the team of experts was able to engage with almost 1,000 visitors!
At-Bristol sends a massive thank you to the team from the University of Bristol for all their support with Volcano Lab over February half term.
Thanks to Alice, our Live Lab and Shows Officer, for writing this blog! Although we've said goodbye to our friends from the University of Bristol, Volcano Lab is continuing until 10 March, with regular drop-in sessions every day.
All Live Lab activities are included in our general admission price; you can buy your tickets to At-Bristol online here, or by calling our Bookings team on 0845 345 1235 (Monday - Friday, 9am - 5pm, excluding bank holidays).
After Hours: Heart-stopping Attraction
Blogging science to life
Sat 9 February 2013, Written by: Heather
After the success of our first-ever After Hours adult-only evening in December, we’ve been hard at work to make sure our next event is just as fun! Whether you’re loved-up or happily single, if you’re after something a little more inspiring than flowers and chocolates this February then look no further than Heart-stopping Attraction – our own take on Valentine’s Day, with an At-Bristol twist of course…
For all the heartbreakers – and heartbroken – out there, this is your chance to get up close and personal with some real tubes and chambers as our dissection experts take you through the ins and outs of the cardiac system – and if you’re feeling strong-stomached, you can even step up and wield the scissors yourself. Plus, whether it’s soppy films or internet cats that usually tug on your heartstrings, have a go at pulling on the real deal and you might just be impressed by how strong they are!
Forget Take Me Out: over in the Studio, we’ve been taking inspiration from the brightest, loudest, and most downright fabulous birds across the globe in preparation for our very own dating gameshow. Prepare to strut your stuff, sing your heart out, and shake your tail feather like a lusty jungle bird as we battle it out to discover who’s got what it takes to impress in the weird and wonderful world of courtship dancing!
We’ve also been fine-tuning the wiring in our pop-up dating booth with a difference – complete with heart-rate monitor! If you’re feeling brave enough to put your emotions under the microscope, then we’ll analyse your body’s reactions over the course of a micro-date with a fellow volunteer. Whether you’re the master of playing it cool or you get a bad case of butterflies whenever someone catches your eye, we’ll soon find out which questions get you hot (or not!) under the collar…
What could be more romantic than lying back under the stars and pointing out constellations with your lover? Sadly, in reality it’s often more a case of shivering whilst struggling to discern what’s lurking beyond the glow of urban lights (is that the moon? Venus? Easyjet?) before giving up and going back inside. Forget wet grass and pesky streetlamps in the Planetarium: we’re talking comfy seats and a guaranteed view of the Universe’s most spectacular vistas. We’ll also be taking a slightly different look at constellations and hearing all about what those racy ancient Greeks thought was going on up in the night sky – scandalous!
As if all that isn’t enough, of course our two floors of exhibits will be open for plenty of hands-on fun. Have a play with our magnetic sand and put the laws of attraction to the test, whisper sweet nothings across the whisper dishes, or head over to Animate It and create your own rom-com or epic love story – Wallace and Gromit style!
All that excitement is bound to work up an appetite, and we’re sure you’ll love the hearty home-made treats our chef will be serving downstairs in the café. Warm your February cockles with a West Country lamb stew or root vegetable casserole, followed by a decadent double chocolate brownie – and dinner’s only a fiver! We’ve just been awarded the Soil Association’s prestigious Food For Life silver Catering Mark and Compassion in World Farming’s Good Egg Award for our commitment to providing fresh, local and ethically-sourced food – yet another reason to make a whole night of it. Plus, whether you’re in need of a little Dutch courage before asking for that girl’s number or it’s your turn to get a round in for your mates, we’ll have bars on each floor, fully stocked with drinks and tempting treats to keep you fuelled all night long!
Whilst we can’t guarantee you love, we can guarantee that it’s not your average night out…
Buy tickets!
£7 adults
£6 concessions and At-Bristol members
Planetarium shows - £1 extra
Two course dinner - £5
Buy your tickets online, or call our lovely bookings team on 0845 345 1235 (Mon – Fri 9am – 5pm)
Toddler Takeover… the testing panel!
Blogging science to life
Fri 11 January 2013, Written by: Nicole
With the first ever Toddler Takeover double bill under a week away we thought we better make sure we had got our planned activities just right… so we invited in a judging panel to road test them…
Toddlers and parents from a local storydance group came in to give our Toddler Takeover Crazy Creatures activities a dry run before we launch them on Thursday 17th and Friday 18th January. As well as the first ever Toddler Takeover double bill Crazy Creatures will also feature the ‘Beautiful Bug Ball’ - a special baby disco where little ones can dress up and head down to the dance floor to shake their tail feathers!
Local little ones tested making wiggly dancing worms; the perfect accessory for any shimmy!
Judging by all the smiles, gurgles and giggles we think it’s safe to say we satisfied the harshest critics!
With disco lights, bubbles and baby dancefloor classics the Beautiful Bug Ball is sure to be a roaring success with your cute critters too.
As well as getting down to the funky beats there will be the usual host of hands-on activities, interactive exhibits, Little Stars Planetarium show and Home Sweet Home - storytelling taking little ones on an imaginary woodland adventure.
Find out more
Buy tickets online or call 0845 345 1235 (Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm excluding Bank Holidays) to speak with our lovely Bookings line.
Festive Fun in At-Bristol!
Blogging science to life
Tue 11 December 2012, Written by: Heather
It’s pouring with rain, the kids are bouncing off the walls, and distant relatives are soon to descend. If you’re at a loss for ways of keeping everyone entertained over the Christmas break, then look no further than At-Bristol for festive fun the whole family can enjoy – but forget yet another visit to Santa’s grotto and prepare yourself for something a lot more exciting…
Santa’s Invention Workshop
The Live Lab area has been transformed into Santa’s Invention Workshop for the duration of the holiday period, so drop in whenever you like and get hands-on with some Christmas crafting! Let the At-Bristol elves guide you as you make your own working LED decorations to take home, or simply let your imagination run riot – we’ve even seen some light-up test-tubes for the seriously scientific Santas out there! Plus, discover some unusual uses for everyday items as we show you how to transform balloons and CDs into mini hovercraft, and create rockets out of old drinks bottles – perfect for inspiring little elves to entertain themselves once you get back home!
Party Tricks in the Studio
If your family’s getting tired of dusting off the board games and cracker jokes in the evening, then look no further than our Studio for some after-dinner Party Tricks that are sure to impress! We’ve got Christmassy chemistry galore as we light the Flaming Pudding Tornado, create a snowstorm in a teacup, and find out how Santa fuels his sleigh. Expect lasers, explosions and Christmas sweets as you’ve never seen them before – just make sure you don’t try these at home!
Winter Night Sky
For something more sedate – but no less impressive – now is the perfect time to take a tour of the Winter Night Sky in the Planetarium. December’s long nights might make getting up in the morning a drag, but it also means there’s plenty of time for some star spotting in the evening before the kids go to bed. Discover distant galaxies and find out what you can see from your own back garden over Christmas with an expert-led show, then grab one of our take-home guides and put your new-found knowledge to the test back at home – it certainly beats yet another evening spent watching endless repeats of festive films!
The At-Bristol Café and Shop
All that creating and exploring is bound to work up an appetite, so head over to the downstairs café for some warming winter treats, including gingerbread hot chocolate and one of Uncle Kev’s cakes. All our home-mad food is freshly cooked on-site using locally-sourced ingredients – perhaps that’s why it tastes so good! Finally, if you’re after last-minute presents before the big day (and pocket money treats the whole year round!) look no further than the At-Bristol shop for quirky gifts and scientific stocking fillers for the whole family. From gadgets and gizmos for the technophile in your life to inspired gifts for intrigued young minds, you’re sure to find something unique for even the most difficult to buy for!
Of course, as well as all our special Christmas fun we’ve got two floors filled with hundreds of interactive, exciting exhibits for the whole family to explore. Let your littlest ones’ imaginations run wild with story time in the under eights’ areas, play a family game of virtual volleyball, create your very own animated adventure, and be amazed by tornadoes, cosmic rays and the innermost workings of the human body – all under one roof!
Don’t forget that we’re closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, but open every other day over the holidays from 10am to 6pm.
Merry Christmas!
Green Christmas Blogfest: Part 3
Blogging science to life
Tue 11 December 2012, Written by: Heather
The third and final of our live blogs from Bristol's Green Blogfest: be inspired by our Christmas crafting and green gifts!
Get thrifty with our Christmas activities
Tatty tinsel and faded fairy lights? Before you replace them with some decadent decorations, consider making your own instead! Paper chains are great to make at home, but here in At-Bristol we’ve taken Christmas crafting to the next level with Santa’s Invention Workshop: drop in and make your own LED tree decorations, as well as discovering some nifty new uses for everyday items that you might find lying around the house. We’re turning old CDs into mini hovercraft, and empty drinks bottles into rockets – but your imagination’s the limit!
No batteries required!
Finally, if you’re hoping for green gifts under the tree this year, make sure you suggest Santa pops into the At-Bristol shop to find all these and more:
Eco-cups: whether your caffeine hit of choice is a double-choc-gingerbread-skinny-latte or a straight-up espresso shot, ditch the disposable takeaway cups in favour of a super-stylish porcelain reusable one. Not only will you avoid throwing all those cardboard cups to landfill, but your drink will stay just the right temperature – and with a range of designs to choose from, you’ll look pretty hot too!
Water-powered cars: fuelled by nothing but water and creating only hydrogen as a by-product, the life-size version might not have hit the mass markets quite yet, but you can still take these mini water-powered cars out for a spin!
Lemon and potato clocks: forget fiddling around with batteries on Christmas morning: simply plug one of these clocks into a lemon or a leftover spud and voila – accurate timekeeping powered by nature!
Once you’ve picked all your perfect presents, carry them home in one of our recycled brown paper bags – or better still, remember to bring your own bag with you!
Merry Green Christmas from all in At-Bristol! #greenbristol
Green Christmas Blogfest: Part 2
Blogging science to life
Tue 11 December 2012, Written by: Heather
In the second instalment of our live blogs from Bristol's Green Blogfest, here's a look at how At-Bristol itself is leading the way in sustainability - and how you can take inspiration for your very own Green Christmas!
Be inspired by the At-Bristol building itself
At-Bristol is a unique, cutting-edge building, full of ingenious ways of keeping itself warm, saving energy and reducing water usage. If you’re in need of some motivation to go green, try setting yourself a target: we took part in the 10:10 campaign, aiming to cut our energy consumption by 10% by 2010 – instead we reduced it by 12% in just 12 months, and two years later, we’ve reached a reduction of 20%!
It’s freezing out there but before you turn the radiator up to full blast, take a leaf out of At-Bristol’s book and try reusing the heat you’ve got around you. We’re not suggesting you install your very own version of our unique phase-change storage tank and air-source heat pumps, but simple things like putting on an extra jumper, closing the curtains at dusk or even investing in some loft insulation all mean you can turn the thermostat down a notch or two this winter – saving energy and money too!
Here in At-Bristol we have an advanced system of 138 sensors to monitor our energy usage throughout the building, so we know just how much electricity we’re using – and can pinpoint ways of saving it too! You can get an easy-to-use monitor for your own home; many libraries and energy companies will even lend them to you free of charge. We smashed our energy-saving targets by taking simple steps to reduce the amount of electricity we use around At-Bristol, and the good news is they’re easy to do at home too! Staff in our offices are reminded to turn off lights and appliances when they’re not in use, we use night electricity wherever possible, and we improved the efficiency of our building systems – at home it’s easy to put the washing machine on at night, bleed your radiators once a year, and make sure your boiler is in top working order in order to be as efficient as possible.
As well as trying hard to save energy wherever we can, we’re also the very proud owners of central Bristol’s largest photovoltaic array up on our roof, with 208 solar panels – that’s enough to cover more than two tennis courts! Working at peak efficiency, our solar roof produces enough energy to power 11 average households, and saves over 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. Perhaps you could put some solar panels on your Christmas wish list this year – or visit the Energy Saving Trust for all the information on how to finance and install your own!
It’s not just energy that we like to save in At-Bristol: we’re always looking for ways to reduce our water consumption too. We adapted all our toilets to reduce the amount of water used per flush by a third – and whilst some of our technology certainly is cutting-edge, all it took was an old plastic bottle in the cistern! Our water features on Millennium Square might be too icy to splash in at the moment, but they’re still collecting plenty of rainwater which we then use in our cleaning machines – in much the same way as a water butt in the garden can harvest rain to water plants and wash the car at home.
We're blogging live from the Green Blogfest so stay tuned for the next instalment! Follow the comversation on twitter: #greenchristmas
Green Christmas Blogfest: Part 1
Blogging science to life
Tue 11 December 2012, Written by: Heather
We’re very excited to be hosting Bristol’s first-ever Green Blogfest today – we’ve invited all our friends from the Bristol Green Capital Engagement Group to get together and share ideas on how everyone in the city can have a more sustainable Christmas this year. So forget Bing Crosby – we’re certainly dreaming of a Green Christmas instead! Here are some of the ways in which we’re hoping At-Bristol might inspire you to become a sustainable Santa this year...
Reduce, reuse, recycle…
With all those presents, cards and extra treats over the Christmas season, in the UK we throw away a staggering 3 million tonnes of extra waste over the festive period*. Here in At-Bristol we’re always looking out for ways of making sure we reduce the amount of waste we produce and reuse and recycle as much as we can. Did you know that we design and make almost all of our exciting exhibits right here in our workshop? That means we have complete control over where we source materials, how we put exhibits together, and, importantly, what happens to them when their time on the floor comes to an end. We have a “cradle to grave” policy in our workshop, so part of your favourite exhibit might well have started out as a different part of somebody else’s favourite a few years ago – and who knows what it might become next!
Our World – no more waste is our SITA Trust-funded exhibition exploring all the ways in which our wonderful planet recycles everything into something new, making sure nothing is wasted. For billions of years, nothing new’s come into our system and nothing’s gone out either, meaning the Earth has some pretty ingenious ways of reusing things, whether it’s turning rocks into sand or making plants out of the air we breathe. If nature can find a use for old gas, surely there’s something we can do with all those leftover sprouts and wrapping paper trimmings come Boxing Day - turkey curry and homemade cards next year perhaps?
Food, glorious food!
It’s the season to eat, drink and be merry, but all that festive feasting can come at a cost to the environment as well as to our waistlines! From mass-produced meats to forgotten food – we waste around 230,000 tonnes over the holiday period in the UK**. Try popping into the At-Bristol café for some more sustainable tasty treats instead, including Rainforest Alliance-certified coffee, locally-sourced organic ingredients and Uncle Kev’s home-cooked cakes – yum! Plus, making everything on-site means we waste less packaging and use less fuel in transporting food too.
We're blogging live from the Green Blogfest so stay tuned for the next instalment! Follow the conversation on twitter: #greenbristol
* source: networkwaste.co.uk
** source: lovefoodhatewaste.com
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