Developing interactive microbiology activities for Norwich Science Festival 2025

Raphael Lwesya, a Quadram Institute based second year PhD student, recently completed his professional placement with the Centre for Microbial Interactions.

As a science communicator, Raphael runs a blog called The Phage, where he translates complex science into simple language for the general public. With the same aim, he wanted to further his experience by directly engaging with the local community and working alongside more experienced people in the field, but from a different angle.

Raphael was keen to gain first-hand experience in public engagement and science communication, so developing engaging and educational activities for Norwich Science Festival 2025 was a perfect opportunity. He wished to enhance his skills in project management, content creation, and collaboration by working with designers, city organisations, and volunteers. His placement also provided an opportunity to network with professionals and contribute to website articles.

During the placement, Raphael developed the Marvellous Microbes poster trail as well as an activity stand about microbial communities for Norwich Science Festival 2025. The activities aimed to engage families and children, and help take microbiology out of the lab and into the community by inspiring curiosity about the invisible but incredible world of microbes. He also ensured digital resources from the festival were uploaded to our website for schools and other organisations to access.

Overall, the activity stand saw hundreds of visitors and received positive feedback for the hands-on games highlighting the diverse microbes that can be found in different environments. The city centre poster trail was also completed by at least 92 people who successfully visited each venue and found the hidden clues to enter a prize draw.

Raphael acknowledges that his placement helped to increase his self-confidence, organisational and problem-solving skills and refined his professional voice and communication abilities. He said, “This experience allowed me to take the initiative, adapt to challenges, work efficiently under pressure, which boosted both my self-confidence and effectiveness in professional settings.”

Sam Rowe, project manager at the Centre for Microbial Interactions, commented, “Raphael’s placement meant we had much more capacity to develop interesting outreach activities for Norwich Science Festival. He worked really effectively on the project and adapted well to any challenges to create the public-facing poster trail and interactive stand. Overall this really helped us showcase the Centre and microbiology expertise in Norwich to new audiences.”