NI Science Festival at Ulster Museum

See the incredible events NI Science Festival are hosting at the Ulster Museum this February 2025!

The Ulster Museum atrium showing the 3 dragons

Date

February 2025

Toddlers and their parents playing games

Maths Explorers at Ulster Museum (12 to 23 Feb)

Pick up a “Maths Explorers” map at the reception desk and follow our trail around 10 stops- completing maths problems as you go! Take a picture of your completed map and send it to [email protected] to be entered into our prize draw!

Get Arty with Archaeology (14 Feb)

Join HERoNI archaeologists Bronagh Murray and Hannah Parker for a hands-on illustration and crafts workshop. Make your own pop-up castle or craft your own replica Bann disc. We will also have replica prehistoric pots and artefacts for handling.

Power Plants - Imagining The Future Workshop (15 Feb)

A drop-in workshop for children (and playful adults…) to explore your creativity by designing and making a Power Plants ‘tray garden’, a miniature representation of your ideal future world. Using a variety of natural and recycled materials, create small-scale landscapes that reflect your imagination of how we might live together more sustainably.

An illustration of hands holding a lightbulb and brain

How do we learn about learning? (5 to 16 Feb)

This event will offer an interactive set of activities for families to learn more about child development research. The activities will include a combination of researcher-led and self-directed activities for parents and children, with activities based on children’s development of language, literacy and physical development.

Illustrations of multi colour do do birds

Dodo’s Are Not Extinct with Paddy Donnelly (16 Feb)

Join author-illustrator Paddy Donnelly at the Ulster Museum for a fun storytelling and drawing workshop! Discover extinct animals like dodos and woolly mammoths and enjoy fascinating animal facts.

Caddisflies: Sculptors of the Stream Bed (18th Feb)

Caddisflies are an important group of freshwater insects, living in streams, pools and ponds as larvae, emerging for only a brief period as adults, for the reproductive stage of their lives. This talk introduces you to some of the amazing members of this insect group, showing some of the intricate cases that they construct.

Unearthing the Heat Beneath our Feet (20 Feb)

‘Rock up’ to a very special night at the museum for the premiere of a short film examining the power and potential of geothermal energy in Northern Ireland! The film ‘digs deeper’ into Northern Ireland’s untapped potential for geothermal energy right beneath our feet.

An illustrated image of the Protected ship Wreck, La Girona

The Story of the Protected Wreck, La Girona (21 Feb)

Join Dr. Rory McNeary for an illustrated talk on the Protected Wreck, La Girona. Discover its history with the Spanish Armada, the wrecking event, and its rediscovery in 1967. Explore the artefacts in the Ulster Museum's Armada Collection and learn about the site's protected status and potential archaeological evidence.

'Extinctions, how life survives, adapts and evolves' title page

Extinctions with Michael Benton (21 Feb)

Professor Michael J. Benton’s timely talk explores the science of mass extinction, showing how advances in biology, chemistry, physics, and geology have transformed our understanding of Earth’s deep past. He presents compelling evidence of environmental crises that nearly collapsed life on Earth.

An illustrated image of a colourful dinosaur

Colour of Dinosaurs (22 Feb)

In a new collaboration, Mike Benton works with renowned palaeo-artist Bob Nicholls to bring to life 15 dinosaurs, birds and pterosaurs from all continents, and to show in detail how they looked in life. For the first time, we can believe what we see in the reconstruction, based on intimate study of skin, scales, and feathers of these ancient beasts.

Northern Ireland’s Hidden Depths (22 Feb)

A Journey into our Underwater World! Join the team from QML for a virtual dive showcasing high-resolution 4K video of some of Northern Ireland’s unique underwater habitats and incredible wealth of marine life.

A book title page in the colour green, reading 'A history of ireland in ten body parts'

A History of Ireland in Ten Body Parts (23 Feb)

Skulls, heads, hands, height, legs, sex organs, blood, brains, stomachs, ears and corpses – discover Irish history through the prism of the body. Medical historian Dr Ian Miller brings readers on a uniquely entertaining journey through Irish history.

For Peat's Sake : with Lucy Lapwing and RSPB NI

Join TV personality and nature enthusiast Lucy Lapwing and RSPB NI for an exploration of peatlands’ importance in combating climate change. Discover fascinating bog ecosystems, wildlife, and RSPB’s Peatland Programme efforts to restore and protect these unique habitats.