Science on Stage 2024 Festival highlights. Stuart Farmer, Chair of the SonS UK National Steering Committee reflects on a fabulous event. 

The Science on Stage 2024 Festival took place in the Turku University of Applied Science between the 12^th and 15^th of August.  Over 400 science educators from across Europe and beyond attended with several hundred more on the open day on the 14^th of August.  More information about the festival can be found at https://www.sons2024.eu/.

The UK was represented by 11 people presenting their projects across the themes of the conference which included STEM for the Youngest, STEM for Sustainable Development, Diversity in STEM Teaching, Low-Cost Experiments in STEM Education, and more.  In addition, three teachers from the UK were selected to present projects they had developed jointly with teachers from Bulgaria, Portugal and Sweden.  The UK was also represented by four others involved with the organisation and delivery of Science on Stage (SonS) activities: Stuart Farmer, SonS UK Representative; David Featonby, SonS Board Member; Kulvinder Johal, SonS Ambassador, and Emma Crisell, SonS Jury Member, making the largest team ever to represent the UK abroad.

The core of all SonS festivals is the fair where delegates from across more than 30 nations exhibit their work.  Details of all the projects, including downloadable posters, are available at https://www.sons2024.eu/festival-projects/.  In the fair the SonS moto of ‘From teachers, for teachers’ was very evident.  On the first day, representatives of many governments and embassies attended the festival and it gave me great pleasure to welcome Pauliina Rajal, Science and Innovation Officer, from the British Embassy in Helsinki to the festival and show her around the fair and introduce her to the UK delegation.

In addition to the fair, a small number of delegates are selected to present workshops, and the UK punched above its weight and was well represented by Rose Edmondson with Magnificent Moss, Colleen Reesink-Wells and Paula Egan with Replacing Plastics, and Adrian Allan along with Rute Oliveira from Portugal with The Science Behind Magic.  In a busy programme delegates had time for some social activities including the festival dinner held in an old school now converted into a bar and restaurant.  At the end of the festival there were also optional visits to places such as the Turku Zoological Museum and Vaisala Space Centre and to visit a local High School to gain a glimpse into the realities of Finnish education.  The relaxed, civilised, respectful but business-like ethos of the school was unlike anything I have seen in the many schools I have visited in the UK.

The SonS delegates from the UK provided me with many comments and quotes about their experiences, far more than there is space to include here, but I hope the following give a good flavour of the experience attending a SonS festival.

“SonS has given me a big confidence boost and made me appreciate that schools across Europe have similar problems and solutions to us.  It’s been great to meet so many enthusiastic and encouraging teachers with so many great ideas.”
Al Riddell, Lossiemouth High School

“I was inspired by how much we all had in common.  All those teachers from so many different countries, speaking a huge range of languages, and yet all working to provide the best education for our children through some amazing projects.  So reassuring and motivating.”
Vicky Walsh, Monk Fryston Primary School

"Being part of SonS is incredible.  I was lucky enough to attend in 2022 with an individual project and met Jenny from Sweden on the last day.  We hit it off immediately and came up with an initial idea of using play in STEM.  This developed into using the UN SDG and space as a base to launch our project - Press Play: Sustainable Life on the Moon.  SonS is the most innovative platform for the sharing of ideas, CPD and showcasing the incredible work of educators.  We get to share so much more than ideas, make friendships that last forever and develop new ideas and projects to take back to our schools and share."
Sophie Brace

“I've been lucky enough to have participated in other international CPD based in Europe, and I must say that SonS is unique in its focus of championing educators, developing partnerships, and building a global community that looks to the future."
Stuart Naismith, Gartcosh Primary School

To complete a successful festival, Colleen Reesink-Wells was awarded the European STEM Teacher Award in the Sustainable Development theme for her project Replacing Plastics: An Investigation into Creating Natural Polymers. 

She will be presenting a workshop on her project at the ASE Annual Conference in Nottingham in January and others in the SonS2024 delegation will present other highlights from Turku in a Best of SonS 2024 session. 

Come and find out more about SonS and how to get involved in future events.

Stuart Farmer

Chair of the SonS UK National Steering Committee