MATTHEW
“Well, what an exciting and interesting few weeks!
After a tour of the RI’s beautiful Grade I listed museum building, we got started familiarising ourselves with the content of the three lectures and finding out a bit about the subject matter and things we would need to design and build for the demos.
Although I was a little nervous to begin with, once I had met the team and settled in, I was just excited to work in such a historic building and wanted to get going with making whatever weird and wonderful thing was needed next.
I ended up mostly working on the bigger builds/woodworking side of things, such as the line-up board and the big ring/diamond in the finale, as this lent itself to my experience. However I also helped on lots of other things, too.
The most exciting part of the experience was supporting the rehearsals and filming sessions - it was a real insight and thrilling to be a part of.
I had a fantastic time working with the Demo team at the Royal Institution. They are a really friendly, hardworking, and dedicated team, who made us feel very welcome and appreciated. One thing that surprised me was how quickly the team could react to changes in the lectures that may arise for whatever reason, working together to find a solution and create exactly what was needed in no time at all - like magic!
I would really recommend any technicians who have a passion for science communication to apply. I had so much fun, learned a lot, and met some brilliant people in the process.”
TES
“I was thrilled when I was told my application to work on the 2023 Christmas lectures was accepted.
They were an integral part of my childhood so it was incredibly exciting to have the chance to be a part of them!
It was very nerve-racking at first, as I knew I was going to be spending a month in a strange city working with new people, and the lectures were on a topic I had no experience in. But the team made sure I was as prepared as possible. Once we arrived, they were so welcoming and excited to include us.
From my first day, I started working on and thinking about how to build demos - working out how to scale up a human hand for a model for lecture three. By my second day I was building giant bones out of plasticine - it was such an odd start to the placement and it didn’t get any less unusual as the weeks went on! From piles of chattering teeth to 30 litre buckets of jelly, I was working with such a range of strange materials to build unusual things.
It was a fast paced and unpredictable environment. The production team regularly asked the demo team to change and adapt different demo pieces. You can spend a lot of time working on a specific demo only for it to never make it onto the screen. However, even if a demo doesn’t make it on screen, the RI do a wonderful job of making sure everything gets used for something!
The team all have such excellent science communication skills and I have learned so much I can bring back to my own work. It was a phenomenal opportunity. I got to learn a lot about an area that was almost entirely new to me, from Professor Dame Sue Black and the other experts who came to contribute to the lectures.
A huge thank you to everyone for this opportunity and the hard work everyone put in!”
Catch up on the Royal Institution’s Chritsmas Lectures 2022 on BBC iPlayer.
