University of Leeds: Be Curious open day to share research with family-friendly activities

Be Curious, the annual University of Leeds family open day, is back for 2024 on Saturday, May 18 from 10am to 4pm.

The university will be open to the public for a day of free interactive and family-friendly activities on subjects ranging from Artificial Intelligence to fossils and medicine to volcanoes.

Professor Hai-Sui Yu, the university’s interim vice-chancellor and president, said: “Be Curious offers everyone a chance to learn more about the great teaching and research we do at the University of Leeds, while giving young people the chance to learn new skills and be creative. We are committed to engaging with our communities across the city and region and hope to inspire the next generation of researchers.”

Highlights include a jellyfish station, where participants can make a jellyfish from recycled materials with arts organisation Immortal Bloom, and the work will be featured at Light Night on campus this October.

Elsewhere, Dr Scott McLaughlin and Pianodrome are transforming an old piano and giving it a new lease of life, while in health, Dr Emily Caseley takes visitors on a virtual reality tour to find out how medicines work in our bodies.

The Dialect and Heritage Project is hosting the Great Big Dialect Trail, where clues across campus will show how to save lost dialect words from extinction.

Visitors will also get the opportunity to learn about Leeds legend John Smeaton – regaded as the UK’s first civil engineer. Researchers will demonstrate how Smeaton’s ideas are still important, 300 years on.

This year there will also be a space curated by Leeds Youth Council, where research topics that are important to children across the city will be showcased.

Be Curious has worked closely with Child Friendly Leeds and the programme will be shared with communities across the city.

This year, a quiet hour has been introduced for visitors who prefer a calmer environment. Between 10am and 11am, the number of visitors will be limited to allow movement around campus at their own pace.

Dr Alexa Ruppertsberg, head of public engagement with research, said: “We want all children in Leeds and beyond to have the chance to get hands-on with the research that happens here at the university. It is a fantastic opportunity for the public to see how our research is revealing life- changing discoveries.”

Be Curious features a wide variety of research topics, from arts to health and literacy to science.

The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK, with more than 40,000 students from about 140 different countries.

To book free tickets and view the full line-up of events visit the Be Curious website.