The 2024 European Researchers’ Night (ERN) science festival was sold out. It was a wonderful event, organised by the Schools for Science and Society of the University of Groningen (RUG), where science and public came together in an informal and open way.
There were 40 science activities on the ground floor and first floor of Forum Groningen. In addition, over 30 lectures, workshops, and interactive sessions attracted thousands of festival visitors, predominantly twenty-agers, plus some people from other age classes, including teenagers.
It was a great vibe, but noisy, making communication and interaction challenging at times. BTG was one of less than a handful of external exhibitors. The BTG team included 3 BTG staff and 2 GenB Ambassadors. An estimated 200-250 festival visitors (5%) came to the BTG exhibition stand.
BTG hosted 2 experimental set-ups: the sense-sational Feel & Find set-up for the GenB project and the Lured by Labels challenge for the 3-CO project. In addition, we showcased the pilot version of the Green Chat Quartet, handed out hardcopies of the GenB colouring and activity booklets, and invited our visitors to answer the question “When you buy new clothes, which aspect also matters to you” (using wooden buttons to cast a vote).
There was high interest in both our experimental set-ups. This resulted in both shorter and longer engagements and interactions with the (very international) audience. Regarding the GenB set-up, commonly heard questions included: What is kapok? How do you produce a cleaning agent from citrus fruit peels?
Only three or so festival visitors completed the Lured by Labels challenge without any help and without making mistakes, and another five or so needed a little help to achieve a perfect score.
A video– and photographer was present during the Night. The results of his work are accessible here.