2019's British Science Week was a blast from start to finish. We were thrilled with the level of engagement from people all over the country - you got stuck into our fun-filled activity packs, helped with real research by becoming citizen scientists, ran through 1 million years of history, and got your creative juices flowing in our nationwide poster competition. 

To all the participants who showed their enthusiasm for everything science-related, we'd like to send a heartfelt thank you for getting involved! 

Want to see some of the action? Scroll on for our highlights...

Activity packs 

We're delighted to see such great uptake of this year’s activity packs, themed around ‘journeys’. There have been over 82,000 downloads so far (and counting!).  

Our primary-level pack proved the most popular and was downloaded over 45,500 times. 

The packs have a massive range of activities, from creating tunnels to mummifying oranges, mixing perfumes and designing infographics. They're still available and are free for everyone - download them today.  

We loved seeing your pictures on social media of you getting involved in the activities. We even took part at BSA HQ, where staff members gave the Desert Journey challenge a (somewhat unsuccessful) go!  

This year, we were thrilled to include some new family packs, curated with our Principal Partners, Eurotunnel. The packs provided easy, fun activities for families, which require minimal resources.

While the packs were designed for use over British Science Week, they can be used any time, so keep tagging us at @ScienceWeekUK with your images!

Run with the Ancestors  

This year, we released another race in our ever-popular Run… series: Run with the Ancestors. The app launched in late January and since then over 2,000 people have taken part. Did you miss it? Don’t worry, our original Run the Solar System virtual race is still open!

This year’s race transformed your run into an educational and exciting journey by throwing you into the heart of the human story. Tracking you via GPS, it transported you back in time to 1 million years ago where, through a thrilling narration, you heard the story of our ancestors as they arrived, lived and thrived in Britain, right up until the present day.

The app was complemented with a live race that took place on Saturday 16 March at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London.

Hundreds of runners bravely powered through the gusts from the tail end of Storm Gareth to make it to the finish line, where they collected their Run with the Ancestors medals and goodie bags, filled with snacks kindly donated to us by BEPPS Snacks and Itsu.

Citizen Science: Operation Weather Rescue

We had a wonderful response to our citizen science project, which called on the public to help us digitise old weather records and help in the fight against climate change.

Thanks to the time and hard work of those who contributed, over 350,000 weather records were entered on the website. From Portsmouth to Valentia, the public got typing and managed to rescue data from the years 1860-1865, which would have taken the team behind the project years to do themselves. This information can now be used by research scientist worldwide, allowing them to understand weather of the past and predict the climate of the future.

Give yourselves a pat on the back!

Find out more about the project here.

Grant recipients

This year we awarded 154 Community grants to help local groups organise activities during British Science Week. We also launched our Community Leaders programme this year, many of whom launched their projects during the Week. LPF Kiddies Club in South East London delivered a crime scene investigation with their STEM Heroes club. Wardleworth Community Centre ran their annual Science Extravaganza in Rochdale, while the Syrian Community of Leeds ran some practical sessions with young people in the local area – to name a few.

We also awarded nearly 500 Kick Start grants to schools in challenging circumstances to allow them to organise their own British Science Week events. CEO Katherine Mathieson made it along to an impressive event ran by Hermitage Primary School who ran an experiment to measure air pollution as well as a science fair with an impressive display of projects. Schools used the grants to help enable a wide range of activities: one school used it to buy dry ice for an experiment, while another used it to run a (very adorable) careers fair.

We really love seeing how you used the grant, so please keep sharing your images with us on social media!

We loved seeing how you used your grants on social media! Keep sharing your images using #BSW19

Social media

We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who tagged us in your social media posts and for telling us about your events and investigations over British Science Week. We loved to see all the diverse groups getting involved in so many different areas of science.

In total, there were nearly 35,000 British Science Week tweets, reaching an estimated 68.5 million people (basically the whole population of the UK!). Thanks to your enthusiasm and contribution, #BritishScienceWeek continues to grow year on year.

In the press...

We had nearly 700 pieces of media coverage this year, which reached an estimated 135 million people.

Highlights included...

Science centres in Scotland got a hefty £10m cash injection, announced as part of the Week and featured on BBC News Online.

Sky News broadcast a brilliant package about our Operation Weather Rescue partnership, which was featured throughout the day on the first Saturday and had an accompanying write up online, giving the project great exposure.

Our very own Jane Dowden, acting Head of Education, did a series of interviews and experiments on local BBC radio, including Sheffield, Cornwall, and Lincolnshire.

YouTuber Katie Stewart, who runs the popular Science with Katie channel, debunked some science myths in a video which was picked up by the Daily Mail.

The Telegraph published a great piece about how to close the STEM skills gap.

Poster competition

Our poster competition is still open! Based on the theme of 'journeys', we’re looking for entries from students across the country. You could win a fantastic prize with Guinness World Records, but make sure to get your artwork in before the closing date on the 05 April. Find out more about how to enter.

Sponsors

We would also like to thank our sponsors for their contributions to British Science Week. From sponsoring our activity packs to our poster competition to our Run… race: without their support, the Week would not be possible. Find out more about our sponsors and contributors here.

Feedback

If you organised an event for British Science Week this year, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please fill our organisers feedback form to help make next year’s British Science Week even bigger and better.