Attractions are out of this world at Science Fair

 

Children screaming, robots running amok – not your average day at St John’s School, but one of the highlights of the academy’s annual Science Fair, which took place on Saturday.

The robots – one Dalek and a pair of Star Wars-style droids – came courtesy of computer science teacher Mark Enright, whose hobby is fast becoming a full-time project.

Mark started his career at the world-famous Sheperton Studios as a prop maker, before moving into teaching.

But he kept his hand in, building robots. Soon his creations were in demand for film, television, theatre and sci-fi conferences. Then came the call from Darth Vader himself, David Prowse, who wanted Mark’s help to resurrect a hero from one of his other projects – the droid who accompanied him as the Green Cross Code Man in the 1970s and 80s.

Mark’s robots aren’t exact copies of their movie inspirations – instead he dips in and out of various sci-fi canons. His electronic droid, Zoe, was inspired by Zoe Graystone from Caprica, who becomes the first Cylon in the Battlestar Galactica universe.

If that means nothing to you, the red light scanning across the face of the robot from left to right and back again – the trademark of the evil Cylons – just might.

His other droid, Issy – named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel – and Victoria – the Dalek – are both Steampunk creations, a subculture of sci-fi, inspired by the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne.

It imagines a world – this one or another – in which steam has remained the primary source of power, despite all technological advances.

Remote-controlled Victoria was arguably the star of the show, chasing children with her familiar cry of “exterminate”, and squirting delighted children with water before switching gears completely and dancing to Psy’s Gangnam Style and LMFAO’s Sexy and I Know It.

Each robot, Mark told Marlborough News Online, takes around a year to make. But visitors didn’t have to be expert prop makers or computer whizzes to make something at the fair.

Children were encouraged to build structures out of pieces of dried spaghetti held together with marshmallows, or discover the wonders of osmosis, by mixing two coloured liquids together to make a third using just cups and paper towels.

The paper cup stacking competition was also popular, although with so many attendees pushing past it was amazing that one lad got his tower to 338 cups – the day’s record while we were there.

The Science Fair was held as part of British Science Week, and was the culmination of a week of activities and seminars.

Want to see Victoria the Dalek in action? Go to our Facebook page to watch the video – www.facebook.com/MarlboroughNewsOnline