From Prize Winner to Judge: My Experience at the Big Bang Fair
My Experience as a Big Bang Competition Finalist
Over the past 2 years, I have been involved with the Big Bang Fair. The Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair is the UK’s largest celebration of STEM for young people which takes place in March every year at the NEC in Birmingham. Within in the fair, finalists of the Big Bang Competition present their work and take part in judging from industry experts to win prizes. After completing a Nuffield Research Placement in the summer of 2018, I was encouraged to enter my project into the competition. I submitted my work online and was invited to the finals in 2019. Here, I then came runner-up in the senior science category!
My project was about investigating the biochemical differences between adult and paediatric airway basal progenitor cells. These are epithelial stem cells found in the trachea – the cells that line our airways. The airways are composed of distinct layers of tissue, and we were looking at the interactions in signalling between the stem cells and how they differentiated to become either ciliated cells (which move mucus away from the lungs) or goblet cells (that produce the mucus). Furthermore, the findings of our work contributed to the development of tracheal transplants that could be used in the future as a therapy to help cure diseases such as long-section tracheal stenosis.
I had such an amazing time being able to present my work at The Big Bang Competition. It was such a privilege to be able to share my work and findings with such a large audience and I really enjoyed talking to other students, schoolchildren, teachers, parents and scientists about my project. I also met several other Nuffield Placement students and it was great to hear about everyone else’s experiences and incredible projects they had worked on. The fair itself was incredible and I enjoyed exploring the stands and what was on offer.
Figure 1: Poppy participating in the Big Bang Competition at the Big Bang Fair 2019. Poppy explaining her work to a judge (left), Poppy holding her trophy and certificate (centre) and Poppy standing at her project display (right).
From Being Judged, to Being the Judge!
After taking part in the competition, I was contacted by the competition’s organisers offering me a role to be a Finalist Care Volunteer at this year’s competition. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, like all the major public events taking place the fair was sadly cancelled. Instead, the competition was moved online, and I was later contacted asking if I wanted to assist in judging the online finals. So, fresh in lockdown and back from university I spent the day in various online video calls helping to judge part of the competition! This involved the competitors sending in a five-minute video explaining and showcasing their project. From this I had to fill out a scoresheet evaluating each project and then discuss the strengths of each project with my judging partner. We later went into a moderation meeting with other judging pairs to further discuss the very best projects with each other to help decide the winners and runners-up.
It was extremely exciting to be involved with the inaugural online finals, especially after taking part in the finals myself the year before. Having the experience of this definitely helped me in the judging as I knew what the finalists would be looking to say to impress us! It was brilliant that we could also continue to celebrate the achievements and all the hard work the young people had put into their STEM projects and it was good to know they would get the recognition they deserved for this.
How You Can Get Involved
So how can you get involved with the Big Bang Fair or Nuffield Research Placements? If you are living in the UK in Year 12 have an interest in STEM and love practical work, I would encourage you to apply for a Nuffield Placement. There are some eligibility conditions which can be found out on the Nuffield Foundation’s website. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know much about your placement as you learn so much while you are there, and you really come to enjoy what you are doing.
As for the Big Bang Competition, it is for those in the UK who are 12-18 years old. You can either apply online or the other way to make it to the finals is by attending a ‘Big Bang Near Me’ fair. This is a great way to practice presenting your project! Projects are either in the Science or Engineering category – this can be an experiment you have devised or a machine you have built. Schools can also get free tickets to attend the fair in March, where there are hundreds of exhibits and activities to get involved in. If you are interested in volunteering at future finals, there are also details online as to how you can get involved in helping inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.
I would also encourage you to submit your projects to Youth STEM Matters so you can gain further recognition for your working. Having judged the competition and seeing what a high standard there is, it would be great to share these projects further and actually get them published in a journal. Not many young people can say they’ve had work published before they’ve left school or college! This will allow you to take your projects further and also help contribute to raising awareness of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
