Home Culture Edinburgh Science Festival – fun for families

Edinburgh Science Festival – fun for families

March 17, 2023 4:23 pm

Edinburgh Science Festival runs from 1 to 16 April. It is intended to give people of all ages the chance to experiment, and these highlights are aimed at family fun.

There are opportunities to perform a surgery, dig up a dinosaur, build a wind turbine and code your own robot at City Art Centre, or you can get hands on at the National Museum of Scotland with FutureFest, Experimental Life and EarthFest interactive exhibitions, and the Festival fun continues with various activities around the city.

Junior Reading Experiment (4-6 April) gives sci-curious young minds a chance to meet science authors while the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh presents, among many others trails and workshops, Frankenstein’s Plants: The Revenge (14-16 April) where children design their own herbarium specimen to take home, and Spring in the Vegetable Garden (16 April) – all about growing your own food at home.

Taking to heart Greta Thunberg’s words “No one is too small to make a difference.”, Dynamic Earth presents Use Your Voice (1-16 April) an exhibition about young climate activists inspiring the next generation, and explains the wonders of the weather in Whatever the Weather (6 & 13 April) workshop for children 1+.

Over at the Edinburgh Zoo, animal enthusiasts learn all about our ancestors in Primates Pop-Up (6-7 April) activity for all ages and the recent discoveries at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland followed by breakfast and activities in Eggsperimental Breakfast (1-2 & 15-16 April).

Out and about, audiences can visit Cherish: Shaping Our Planet (23 March – 4 May) photography exhibition on Portobello Promenade, take part in Operation Sabotage escape room experience at the National Museum of Flight (14-15 April), visit Yellowcraig Beach to learn how to identify and prepare wild vegetables and seaweeds in a Guided Walk with Monica Wilde (8 April) or pop by The Bayes Centre for a chance to meet humanoid robots and hear about how they can assist humans in Meet the Robots (14 April).

For the rainy stay-at-home days, EdSciFest on Demand is the perfect answer – a free online resource full of engaging workshops, quizzes and self-led trails.