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Cardiff Scientists bring 'Music to the Ears' of Thai Schoolchildren
Science with spice…
Wendy Sadler, award-winning director of Cardiff University spin out company science made simple, and science communicator Helen Lloyd spent a week in August 2005 in Thailand delivering their show 'Music to your Ears' to around 700 schoolchildren in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Hat Yai. The trip, arranged by the British Council Thailand and the Thai National Science Museum, was to celebrate World Year of Physics and to encourage science communication as a discipline in Thailand as part of Thai Science Week.
'Music to your Ears' investigates the science of sound and music, and involves the whole audience in experiments, as well as using volunteers, gadgets and demonstrations. The show covers how sounds are made and travel, what we need to make music and how technology has changed music. ‘Music to your Ears’ has also been delivered in Berlin and Madrid this year.
Helen Lloyd, who delivered shows in Thailand, said "Music is found in all cultures, and it crosses language barriers, so it is a good show to take abroad. Everybody has some experience of music, and schoolchildren worldwide find the same things funny."
As well as performing 'Music to your Ears' science made simple provided a day of training for staff at the National Science Museum, in presentation and communication skills. The day ended with three mini science show performances by attendees.
Wendy said; "It was a challenge training people to present shows in a language that we couldn’t understand, but with some help from the translators we got there. It was interesting to see that some things in science can be communicated without using words at all!"
During the trip Helen and Wendy travelled a total of 13,778 miles and encountered floods and torrential rain in the North of Thailand which flooded the British Council building and almost caused the event to be cancelled! Luckily the University in Chiang Mai is situated on a hill so the science week events were mostly unaffected.
