The Great Exhibition of the North

Last weekend, as part of our research engagement work, we took part in the Great Exhibition of the North.  Alongside fellow researchers from the University of Leeds and the University of Newcastle, we explained our work through activities and games at a family-friendly event at the Great Museum of the North: Hancock.

We used colouring sheets to describe basic bowel anatomy. The sheets then formed an impromptu art gallery on a nearby wall (see above). It would have been considerably larger, but many of the attendees wanted to take their art work home with them! We also used a ‘Galton Board’ to demonstrate distribution curves and showed how when you gradually increase your dataset patterns emerge. A particularly popular activity was our ‘pop box’. The pop (short for population) box is a large container of pink and white ping pong balls. Attendees guessed how many white balls there were for every pink ball. They then used scoops to simulate population sampling. We were also joined by representatives of use MY data, who explained their advocacy of health data research that fully involves patients and the public.

We estimate over 200 people attended over the two days and some families stayed for over an hour. It was a gratifyingly busy weekend!