Outreach

Useful contacts

Contact details for the Director of Science Outreach and Coordinators

Sutton Trust Summer Schools

Enhancing physics teaching and learning for young people and their teachers, find out about applying for one of our summer schools

The Physics Department has a long standing history of engaging with the public with outreach activities being an important aspect of our work. The activities we run allow us to explain our research to wider audiences, to describe how science contributes important technical and cultural benefits to our modern society and provide an opportunity to enthuse young people about physics, encouraging them to consider studying science at school and university, and perhaps, in turn, become the scientists of the future.

Physics outreach spans the whole range of our research activities from astronomy through materials physics, nanoscience and atomic physics to particle physics.

When and as Covid-19 restriction allow, our outreach takes many forms: from public lectures and in-school activities to workshops and science festivals such as the annual  ‘Celebrate Science Festival’ held in Durham and the prestigious  ‘Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition’  held in London.

Our school activities involve children from early primary-age up to the sixth form and their teachers.

Our outreach team go into schools and organise a range of practical activities to get children engaged and interested in science

Celebrate Science is an annual three-day science festival organised on Palace Green, open to the public and celebrating Durham University’s latest research with our local community, aimed at 7 to 11 year olds and their families. Each year during the local schools’ October half-term holiday more than 200 staff and student volunteers from departments across the University engage and inspire young people.

A very popular school outreach activity is a visit from our mobile planetarium, which is supported by an enthusiastic team of physics staff and graduate student volunteers. We also support school teachers and their students through activities such as those linked with our Ogden Trust  Schools Science Partnerships and through lectures and physics activities developed for the Durham  Supported Progression  Scheme and the Durham University Sutton Trust Summer Schools.

You can explore outreach areas and participation opportunities with the relevant staff in physics and, within our web pages, you can view the wide range of outreach activities across all the sciences provided by the Science Outreach team at Durham University.

Useful contacts and partners

Contact details for the full outreach team can be found here.

Key contacts

Dr Peter Edwards

Email the Director of Science Outreach
Dr Peter Swift

Email the Physics Academic Outreach Coordinator
Prof Paula Chadwick

Email the Planetarium Coordinator

Dr Peter Edwards

Email the Director of Science Outreach

Dr Peter Swift

Email the Physics Academic Outreach Coordinator

Prof Paula Chadwick

Email the Planetarium Coordinator

Contact the Outreach team

Partnerships and Grants

Durham Ogden Schools Partnership

The Ogden Trustsupport partnerships of schools working together to enhance physics teaching and learning, enriching young people’s physics identity.
Royal Society Partnership Grants

This scheme helps schools to run exciting projects in partnership with a professional scientist or engineer.
Durham Ogden Schools Partnership

This grant scheme provides up to £1500 to individuals and organisations running physics-based events and activities in the UK and Ireland