Wigan S.T.E.A.M SciArt Stem Cell Explorers

We have been attending a two day art/science workshop at the Wigan S.T.E.A.M Hub, what a fabulous place Wigan S.T.E.A.M is, they provide workshops to both adults and children and also have exhibitions to connect people to Stem, culture and heritage and a few other things that you can find out about on their website (here).

Some of the large range of activities they provide is coding, digital and interactive arts, game design, 3D printing and loads more. Some of their more recent workshops have included:- Draw a Circuit using conductive paint to draw a light up circuit, 3D Pixel Art and of course the workshop we attended over two days The SciArt Stem Cell Explorers, which I will tell you more about shortly but I have to tell you about some of their exciting up and coming workshops first, which include Stop Motion Animation, Light Up Canvas Bags and Catapult engineering.

I found Wigan Steam by chance on eventbright and thought the workshop looked interesting so obviously booked on, I am so very glad that we did. I have to say this is in our top 5 events we have attended whilst home educating, definitely worth the two hour trip there and back.

When you walk into the building you immediately feel relaxed with the fabulous entrance up to the reception area. It feels very informal and welcoming with the gallery just to your left as you walk in, you get a sense of calm and creativity.

Vicky the facilitator greeted us with a big friendly smile and immediately put us at ease and a lovely hot coffee was plunged into my hands not long after.

The learning/workshop room itself is lovely, such a cosy room which has a really uplifting atmosphere, kitted out with everything you need for a workshop, including a projector.

The room has a fabulous shelf area with lots of things to discover, these items would be for the use in other workshops, such as the lego stop motion and robot workshops and there was a fabulous book shelf full of fascinating art books. Even though these items were for other workshops and not this Stem Cell workshop, there was no problems or eyes batted at the kids bringing them out throughout the two days on the Stemcell workshop and having an informal play with them, which I thought was a really lovely touch, the kids were just allowed to play with them and just discover for themselves, nothing was out of bounds on the shelves.

There is also a lovely comfy sofa to sit on too, which my bottom graced for two days with its presence.

I should get on and tell you a little bit about what the kids did for two days on the Stem Cell workshop, which was presented by a fabulous young lady called Gabby York-Salmon who is currently doing an MA in art and science at Liverpool John Moores University.

Over the two days Gabby introduced the kids to Stem Cells, they watched slide shows  on cells and some fascinating videos of magnified cells whilst learning about the components (if that is the word) of cells, they also learnt about Science Artists such as Stelark (definitely check him out, he is a very interesting figure) and they created their own pieces of art work using different mediums such as using dried clay to create cells which they painted with colourful UV and Florescent paint, they also used wool on paper to create cells and used felt pieces with beads and various other things to create cells and they peered through a microscope.

The twins were very happy that they got to show off their cell project that they did a couple of years ago and some of the felt cells were created using some images that they had on their project cover, they also got to show off their video that they made, the blog post about that is here if you are interested. 

They learned all sorts about stem cells and did some fabulous artwork over these two days and we will be going over some of it and doing some more writing, googling and arty things around these fascinating cells.

Gabby and Vicky were very engaging throughout the two days, they covered so much in such a short space of time and they were naturally great with the kids, I would recommend anyone go to at least one workshop there or arrange one with Wigan S.T.E.A.M, either one for the adults or one for the kids, but you will definitely not regret it and certainly add a fantastic experience to your life's tick box, we certainly will be going back!...

With permission of parents here is the Stem Cell Sci/Art Gang!..