An estimated 10,000 people, many of them families with young children, poured into the University of Cambridge for the first Saturday of this spring's Cambridge Science Festival.

Visitors came from as far away as London, Essex and Kent for a unique chance to meet scientists, researchers and students, and try their hand at practical science experiments in the environment of a top university.

Nicola Buckley, Co-ordinator of the Festival, said: “Numbers are up around 2,000 on last year which is wonderful. It's especially encouraging to see many more teenagers coming to the Festival, as one of our key aims is to motivate more young people to think about careers in science.”

The hundreds of events, demonstrations and talks that took place across five University sites were sponsored by Agilent Technologies, manufacturers of scientific equipment.

The company's communications manager, James Wood, said: “We're really keen to support initiatives that foster science education. Our sponsorship of Cambridge Science Festival enables us to do that within an environment where so much brilliant science has taken place in the past and continues to do so today.”

Coni and Tony Archer, both teachers at Sanders Draper School, a comprehensive in Hornchurch, Essex, had brought 30 pupils, aged 13 t0 16, to give them a taste for science within higher education.

Coni Archer said: “Teenagers tend to complain that anything educational is boring but each year our pupils find the Science Festival exciting and interesting. It shows them that science is far from stuffy and that the university is accessible to everyone.”

Visitors agreed that one of the strengths of the Festival was the chance to meet scientists and students. Danny Godfrey, who lives in Cambridge, had brought his two children, aged three and five, to get a taste for hands-on science.

He said: “Some of the students are just brilliant at communicating with young children. My children were entranced by explanations of how rocks form and how fungus lives, given by two students who knew exactly how to make things simple and exciting.”

Sue Hickman Pinder from the University's award-winning Millennium Maths Project had brought 30 hands-on maths activities to the Festival. She was assisted by ten students studying maths, who worked with children as young as three on games and puzzles.

She said: “Events like this are a great opportunity for undergraduates to get experience in interacting with the public and communicating to people of all ages. And it's so important for children to see that maths happens everywhere, and involves everyone, and isn't something just confined to school.”

The only complaints were that there was just so much to do and see in one day.

“The Festival is so fantastic, there is so much excitement and enthusiasm around, and you want your kids to get to do everything,” said one mother, who was home-educating her two children, aged four and eight. “They absolutely love it.”

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