Staff and students volunteered their time at our two Curiosity Cube volunteer days this October, bringing fun, hands-on science experiments to over three hundred primary school pupils. This was a new collaboration with the global health care company Merck, whose public programme takes the Cube – a retrofitted shipping container – all over Europe and North America. This was their first visit to Manchester, so we were delighted to help partner Merck up with schools – St Clare’s and St Malachy’s – and to provide an opportunity for our own staff and students to engage young people in science.

Since the Cube is 9 metres long and comes on a 30 tonne delivery truck, it has to be outside in the playground – meaning our 15 volunteers had to brave the autumn chill as well as an 8am start. They all seemed to have a great time despite this, and early feedback from the schools is that the pupils “absolutely loved it”.

The Curiosity Cube Coordinator, Merck’s Rachel Hormeku, was on site to supervise, she said: “Pupils mostly experience less of the practical aspect of science in the classroom. With the Curiosity Cube Program, we want pupils to experience how fun and practical science is. We want to spark that curiosity in them early on, to get them interested in science or science related careers. The two-day visit in Manchester was hugely impactful. Our deepest gratitude to all of The University of Manchester volunteers for helping us engage 314 pupils in the wonder of science.”

• Find out more about the Curiosity Cube