British Science Week is predominantly a grassroots celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths with thousands of events and activities organized in schools, in communities and by a whole host of cultural organizations, businesses and other venues.

There are already almost 2,000 events registered on the British Science Week website, taking place up and down the UK, from Cornwall to the north coast of Scotland.

In addition, the BSA seeks to amplify the impact of this groundswell of local activity by organizing a number of high profile events and activities with key partners – both nationally and regionally – that help us reach more people, and generate more publicity, social and digital media coverage. These include partnerships with:

• Affinity Sutton;
• the National Day Nurseries Association;
• the National Theatre;
• Royal Mail;
• the Churches Conservation Trust;
• Nation of Billions; and
• art collective, Lumen.

There are lots of activities happening in schools, including the annual poster competition and Demo Day, which as well as being supported by Gatsby at a secondary school level, is reaching into primary schools for the first time this year thanks to funding from The Horners’ Company.

How to get involved...

As ever, there are lots of ways to participate during the week for non-school audiences. In particular, there are three things we'd like you to do this year... 

1. Get penguin spotting! Each year we promote a special citizen science activity for people to get involved with. This year we’re once again partnering with Zooniverse and our chosen project is penguin watch.
2. Try some marvellous experiments! This year, we’ve partnered with Puffin UK to celebrate the publication of a new edition of Roald Dahl’s iconic tale, George’s Marvellous Medicine and a special companion book, George’s Marvellous Experiments. We’re excited because we think this won’t just help to inspire budding young scientists but, it will also help us to reach budding young book readers who might not have previously considered themselves scientists.
3. Put your trainers on! Run the Solar System is both a virtual 10k race, built by Six to Start, the team behind ‘Zombie’s Run!’, that can be run anywhere in the world at any time during the Week. And – thanks to the generous support of our partners Yakult – a live 10k race in the Olympic Park on Saturday morning. For those of you who aren’t runners, there’s also a space-themed race village, which is free to attend, and will have solar system related fun for all the family. Do download the App, which is available from tomorrow at www.runthesolarsystem.com

The British Science Association would like to thank the following funders and sponsors for their support for the campaign: the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy; 3M; Yakult; the Gatsby Charitable Foundation; the Horners’ Company; and Merlin Entertainments.