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A 'fantastic plastic' Children's Christmas Lecture – University of Reading

What's the link between disposable nappies and flat screen TVs?; Lego™ blocks and rubber trees?; false legs and zero pollution cars?; oil slicks and cress? The answer is 'polymers' – or 'plastic' – as local youngsters found out at the University of Reading's annual Children's Christmas Holiday Lecture on Monday 22 December. Free tickets for the lecture were snapped up weeks ago, and about 400 seven–13-year-olds and their parents packed the University's Palmer Building to hear why plastic is so fantastic. Averil Macdonald, a part-time Lecturer in the University's Physics Department who won Channel 4's Scrapheap Challenge by building a hovercraft, took the audience on a tour through the fascinating lifecycle of a polymer. 'They can be insulating or electronically-conducting, hard or soft, sticky or slippery, and stiff or stretchy,' she said. 'Not only that, polymers can make you a Nobel Prize winner or a millionaire. 'We talked about what can happen at the end of a polymer's life – how polymers can be reincarnated to save precious resources or how they can be made to biodegrade and return to the Earth in a useful way. All that and the children got a perfect recipe for slime along the way.' The annual Children's Lecture was established at the University about 30 years ago. Vice-Chancellor Professor Gordon Marshall said: 'This is an event that's very important to the University. The lecture is designed to present complex scientific issues to children in an informative and entertaining manner.' End Notes for editors: Mrs Macdonald works part time at the University as she is extremely busy promoting science to a wider audience. Nationally: -Physics expert on BBC BiteSize website for GCSE students – takes part in live web chat answering students' physics questions over the internet. -Took part in Channel 4's ScrapHeap Challenge on television building a hovercraft – her team won. -Has written 15 different text books for secondary school physics classes. -Has written a website for school students explaining how satellites work. -Went on a national lecture tour giving this talk (Fantastic Plastic) to over 6,000 people around the country this year. -Was awarded the Bragg Medal by the Institute of Physics in London in 1999 for her work in Physics. In the University: -Organised the highly popular Free Science Fun Days events which attracted around 6,000 people over two days each year for five years running. Visitors would try out some hands-on science, watch science pantomimes, go in astrodomes and meet famous scientists of the past. -Organised the way the Physics department recruits its students so that we now have three times as many students as we used to in Physics – which is unique in the whole of the UK. -Started the Science Roadshow event for Year 10 students which invites 2,000 school students to visit all our science departments each year as a summer term school trip. For further press information, please contact Carol Derham or Craig Hillsley. Tel: 0118 378 8004/5. E-mail: c.a.derham@reading.ac.uk c.hillsley@reading.ac.uk