2 April 2008

Major Funding Boost For Science Engagement at Our Dynamic Earth

Our Dynamic Earth is to receive significant funding through the Science Engagement Grant scheme, a Scottish Government initiative to engage young people in science. Edinburgh’s five-star visitor attraction will receive over £80,000 to support three projects including a summer show in collaboration with Edinburgh International Science Festival.

Catriona Cardie, Marketing Director at Our Dynamic Earth, said

“Science plays a major part in our everyday lives and it is really important to engage with both our possible scientists of tomorrow and young people who may not yet have an active interest in science. Our projects take science out of the classroom into a fun, colourful arena, making it more accessible to a wider audience. We also bring important topical issues to life in an exciting and entertaining way. We are delighted to receive this funding which means we can work with fantastic partners to take these projects to their full potential.”

Our Dynamic Earth, which has over 200,000 visitors every year, has been awarded £30,000 to deliver two summer shows in association with Generation Science – the touring science education programme from Edinburgh International Science Festival.

The shows will be held in a marquee outside the visitor attraction in July and August 2008. Another £22,246 has been granted to produce and distribute Earth Hero Toolkits, creative science packs for families to take away and do at home.

A further £30,000 was assigned to the Closer2Nature project, a schools’ outreach programme, delivered in association with the Scottish Seabird Centre. Taking environmental science to schools across Scotland, it offers the first Climate Change Workshop available on an outreach basis.

All three of these projects will be match funded by a minimum of 5% by Our Dynamic Earth and other partners. Thirty-three other projects across Scotland will also benefit from the overall £615,000 funding from the Science Engagement Scheme which is expected to reach 300,000 pupils.

For further information, please contact:

Our Dynamic Earth, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AS. Tel: 0131 550 7800 www.dynamicearth.co.uk

For further information on Science Engagement grants see: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Business-Industry/science/16607/engagement-grants

OUR DYNAMIC EARTH REACHES FOR THE STARS

This weekend Edinburgh’s Our Dynamic Earth will be filled with a range of interactive activities to keep scientists of all ages entertained.  The five-star visitor attraction will host an astrochemistry workshop, molecular machines exhibition and photographic showcase, and will have everything from lightning in a jar and invisible stars to spectroscopes and viruses out on show.

As part of Edinburgh’s International Science Festival, Our Dynamic Earth is featuring Stars'R'Us, a new astrochemistry workshop. A three-day drop-in exhibit, running from 4-6 April and hosted by physics guru Martin McCoustra of Heriot Watt University, Stars'R'Us attempts to answer the fundamental questions about the origins of life and the truth of the stars. Using a combination of posters, video material and hands on exhibits, Stars’R’Us reveals how chemistry controls the workings of the modern day universe.

Molecular machines, an exhibition about the common virus, will also be open this weekend for visitors to Our Dynamic Earth. The exhibition opens on Friday 4 April and will display awe-inspiring images and intriguing information about the secret world of super-bugs.

Also at Our Dynamic Earth this weekend, a new photography exhibition will be on display. The Focus Environment Photographic Exhibition will show off the winning entries from the Focus Environment Photographic Competition and features images from 3 categories 'My Environment' 'Wildlife and Habitats' and 'Natures Moods'.

Stars’R’Us, Molecular machines and the Focus Environment Photographic Exhibition are free to enter. Our Dynamic Earth gallery entrance can be purchased on the day.