![](/media/news-and-events/festival-of-ideas/2022/events/r_Festival Family Fun Afternoon (web image).png)
Festival Family Fun Afternoon
Event details
Join us for an afternoon of energetic, crafty, puzzling, scientific and historical fun with University of York postgraduate students and staff at this year’s Festival Family Fun Afternoon.
Interact with robots, learn about food and climate change, immerse yourself in early prehistory, explore the brain in virtual reality, and more!
You can also join a tour of the brand-new Safe Autonomy building, the University of York’s ‘living lab’ for autonomous technologies.
Activities are particularly suitable for five to 11-year-olds, but other family members are welcome to join in too.
Join the fun:
Are You A Super-hear-o?
Join us for some activities that are all about voices! Practise how to describe and recognise voices and learn about the practical uses of voice identification.
ASMR Spa
ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) has become a viral phenomenon on social media and video sharing platforms worldwide, with many people reporting that it helps reduce anxiety, depression, insomnia and even chronic pain. Come along to watch and listen to ASMR-inducing short clips while observing your body responses through real-time visualisations. Have fun putting a brain-lobe puzzle together, writing or drawing ideas, and using emojis to tell us about your mood!
FixOurFood
Join us for plenty of activities around food and climate change. Dare to try some of our fantastic homegrown food, learn about how what we all eat impacts the environment, and put all your knowledge to the test in our games. There’ll be something for everyone, sure to be fun for all the family.
Psych!York
How do you recognise faces? Or understand speech or body movements? Why does the brain work the way it does? These are just some of the many questions we are exploring at the Department of Psychology at York. Come along to Psych!York to find out more about the amazing things your mind and brain can do! Try our demonstrations or talk to our wonderful psychologists to learn more about their fascinating research. We have activities for all ages!
Institute for Safe Autonomy
Say hello to a Nao robot and learn more about the new Institute for Safe Autonomy. You can also:
- Visit the Institute for Safe Autonomy, which is a brand-new facility, due to open later this year, for research into the safety of robotics and autonomous systems. Come visit us to have a go at flying a drone, test out our laser safety tripwire, and stop for refreshments in our purpose built 'living lab'.
- Book a tour around the brand-new Institute for Safe Autonomy. Tours take about an hour, are limited to 20 people per tour, and will run from 11.30am-12.30pm, 1.30pm-2.30pm and 3pm-4pm.
Storytelling through Art in Early Prehistory
Explore the ways that early prehistoric people may have told stories and communicated important information about events and the animals and environment around them through the creation of art. Immerse yourself in the Palaeolithic through VR, videos and replica objects, to learn about how people created cave art through paintings and engravings. And to top it all off, make some art yourself!
Wealth from Waste
Ever wonder what happens to your orange when you juice it? Your tea bag once you use it? Your mango when you peel it? Come and join researchers from the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence to find out how chemists can take your food waste and turn it into valuable fuels, materials and chemicals.
Travelling to the event
Public transport is the easiest way to travel to the University of York campus with frequent bus services from the city centre. If travelling by car to the Ron Cooke Hub, please use the Field Lane and Kimberlow Lane car parks.
Partners
![University of York logo](/media/news-and-events/festival-of-ideas/2019/logos/UOY_Final_Logo_Stacked-Crest_PMS432_protected_500.jpg)
![Shepherd Group logo](/media/news-and-events/festival-of-ideas/2021/logos/Shepherd logo.jpg)
![Are you a Super-Hear-O logo](/media/news-and-events/festival-of-ideas/2022/logos/Are you a Super Hero lego.jpg)
![FixOurFood logo](/media/news-and-events/festival-of-ideas/2022/logos/r_FOF_master_logo.png)
![Institute for Safe Autonomy logo](/media/news-and-events/festival-of-ideas/2022/logos/r_ISA-Logo.png)
![Psych! logo](/media/news-and-events/yornight/2020/logos/psych.jpg)