GCU Community Science Day in partnership with The Barn Youth and Community Centre.

Local community organsations (including third sector, social enterprises, and voluntary organisations) serving The Gorbals and Govanhill and beyond are welcome to The Barn on Friday 15th June at 1pm to ‘Meet the Researchers’, enjoy some refreshments and have a preview of the Community Science Day which opens to the public the following day (Saturday 16th June 12-3pm)

We are delighted that Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon is coming to launch the event in her capacity as MSP for Glasgow South.

This event aims to explore possible links for the future where there are synergies with our research and expertise and the societal issues community groups are working to address so that we can grow our community partnerships as a University for the Common Good. It will finish by 3pm.

On the day there will be representatives from:

- Grameen in the UK – Microfinancing - With the right values and approach almost anything can be achieved. If you represent people with business ideas however big or small, come and talk to Grameen in the UK representatives.

- Interface Innovation Vouchers and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships - Janette Wark, Knowledge Transfer Manager at GCU will be on hand to talk about university and community/business funding opportunities. We will also have examples of two successful projects local to The Gorbals their to share their story.

- GCU Archives & Special Collections – find out what an archive is and how you can use it and view archives from The Glasgow and West of Scotland School College of Domestic Science. Use the archive to create the story of The Gorbals in a box.

- PENA (Romani for Sister) – Pena is a European Social Fund and Scottish Government Innovation Funded project working to identify both the opportunities and barriers for Roma women to access meaningful employment and developing a training/skills development approach that addresses these barriers. This is partnership with GCU, Soul Sisters Food and Crossroads Youth and Community Association in Govanhill.

Science activities at the event will be:

• Cricket Speed Superstar - Measure your cricket ball throwing and hitting speed, register your speed to win a prize

• Visible and Invisible Water Pollution – Learn about the pollutants in our water, howe we measure them and what we can do to prevent them.

• Health based Games & Apps – Did you know that video games can approve your health? Would you like to create content for the game? Come along and play a mobile game that aims to improve your wellbeing. Share your stories about your community and we will help you make it a game!

• Renewable Energy Physics - Solar and Wind Power Learn about renewable energy and learn how to measure energy generation using scientific equipment such as wind turbine and robotic car

• Heat Energy From Air Resources - Using stale air from Bridge Street Underground Station to create hot water for the making of heat energy

• Avatars and 3D Social Virtual Worlds (Second Life) - A chance to her about a research study on how participating in 3D social virtual world communities influenced positive heath and wellbeing and the ability to help people cope with long term health conditions and for you to design your own Avatar

• Antibiotic Resistance, & Hand Hygiene - Imagine a world without antibiotics. Find out about the issue of antibiotic resistance through the creation of a piece of art, measuring the length of your sneeze and tell us how you think we can fight the problem together.
  

• Build your own Virus – Find out how viruses make you sick and make your own

• 3D Scanning of the Gorbals Cross Fountain - Learn about the process involved in reconstructing the original Gorbals Cross fountain and see a demonstrate of 3D scanning of objects.

• Optometry – Learn about Visual perception and the blind spot in the human eye

• The Human Arm – Investigate the nerve workings of the human arm, measure your blood pressure, hear your own blood -

• Sustainable Food - will protein rich insect food be part of our future diet?

• Memory Matters – What is memory? Learn about brainwave activity & memory tests in humans and flies & what affects our memory

We will also be joined by some pupils from Holy Cross Primary in Govanhill.

This event is part of GCU’s Research Celebrations 2018 and the wider Glasgow Science Festival Programme. from 7th - 17th June http://www.glasgowsciencefestival.org.uk/ and we would like to thank our event partners, Crossroads Youth and Community Organisation, Urban Union, Baxter Storey, The Institute of Physics Scotland and Cricket Scotland.

Any questions, please contact community@gcu.ac.uk

We hope you can join us.

@GCUEngagement #GCUGSF