In December we played host, with ARU, to students and teachers from all over Essex at our third annual series of FREE Christmas Lectures for schools.
The lectures are proving to be more and more popular each year – so much so that this time we had to offer two different speakers to satisfy demand! On Wednesday 10 December 2025, Professor Neil Lawrence, Deepmind Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge, presented his lecture entitled “The Atomic Human”. Students were asked to think about what makes us human and Prof Lawrence explained why he thinks that Artificial Intelligence can never replace the human brain.
The following week we welcomed Grace Dickinson from Reptiles Etc. In a very different lecture, “Animal Encounters”, she spoke about relationships between humans and animals throughout time. From the earliest encounters with wolves, to rats used to locate landmines, Grace explained how animals work with humans to benefit us all. She went on to speak about her work as an “Animal Wrangler” in the film industry and the lecture ended with some thrilling demonstrations, including a Barn Owl flying just above the heads of the students!
Both lectures concluded with Q & A sessions featuring brilliant questions from all corners of the room. Some students then went on to tour the facilities at ARU with the tours guided by Student Ambassadors.
In all, 1060 students and staff from 38 different schools attended the four sessions. We hope that the students will be encouraged to consider a career in STEM and, also, that they left with a new knowledge that live events can be interesting and also great fun. After the lectures, one group leader told us:
“The students were buzzing all the way back to school, and as soon as they got in through the gates I could hear them enthusiastically telling all their friends about their experiences!”
Another teacher said:
“The lecture was absolutely brilliant – we thoroughly enjoyed it! We brought our Year 10 and 11 students, and the talk was perfectly suited to that age group. The speaker was excellent- very interactive and there were some fantastic questions from the audience.”
Planning is already underway for the next edition of the lectures in 2026. As always we will ask, nearer the time, for volunteers to help us to deliver the events, so if you would like to join us please do get in touch. Alternatively, if you know of a local business that might like to offer us financial support to continue to provide these events totally free of charge to schools, we would be glad to hear from you.