MRC Epidemiology Unit
On Sunday 23 March staff from the Unit took part in the Cambridge Science Festival (CSF) at the Clinical School. As this year is the first time that CSF events have been held on the Biomedical Campus we were all a little apprehensive about how the event would go, but we needn’t have worried; the turnout was excellent and it was a great success.
More than 200 children, plus their parents, joined in activities around the theme “Patterns of our Lives:Nature Versus Nurture”, bouncing on a trampoline to discover how exercise affects heart rate, answering questions in a quiz on foods and heart health, and (most popular of all) building models of gene variants that affect heart rate from jelly babies.
Children and parents appeared to enjoy themselves thoroughly, and we were able to answer many questions about epidemiology and how genes and lifestyle affect health. Special thanks must go to those staff who helped to organize the Unit stand at the event and of course those who volunteered on the day.