Saturday 29 August 2026

Volunteer guide

Thank you for volunteering! You’re an extra pair of hands helping children bring their ideas to life. The Science Fair is a family drop-in, the theme is space, and the stations only open because you are on them. This guide has what you need for the day: where you’ll be, the plan, and what to bring.

This guide is kept up to date until the last minute, so it is worth opening it again on the day.

Stations

Find your name below. You are on one station, with its facilitator, and they are who you go to for anything.

Station	Facilitator	Volunteer
Nature’s EngineersPaper cities, and a lens on your own phone to look closely at leaves and shells.	Esther, Ellie to 15:30
Nature in MotionFly it in the wind tunnel, or roll it down the slope.	Lucy and Liber
Moon BuggiesLEGO cars down a cardboard ramp: slope, speed and distance.	Ema
Sounds of the UniverseSpace sounds on iPads, and a cardboard sound map that grows across the day.	Muireann, Ellie to 15:30
Materials areaThe junk bank and the craft materials the making stations draw from. Keeping it sorted is most of the job.	Liber
Quiet Creative Space	Helen
Tool areaTwo tables: chompsaws children use with an adult alongside, and glue guns and the rotary tool, which are adults only. Liber and its volunteer hold both tables.	Liber

Who is on

Morning 9:30 to 13:00	Valentina, Sarah and Clare
Afternoon 13:45 to 18:00	Lasya

Day

9:30 Arrive and find your stationThe large room on the ground floor. Setup is going on around you. On the afternoon half, you arrive at 13:45 instead.
9:30 – 10:00 Briefing, and your tool inductionAt your station, run by your facilitator. You are inducted on every tool you will be using before the doors open.
10:00 – 17:30 Doors open, and the day runsDrop-in, so families arrive continuously. Quiet at first, and much busier towards midday.
13:00 – 13:45 Breaks, and the halves change overThe midday prayer (Zuhr) is at 13:30. The morning half finishes at 13:00 and the afternoon half starts at 13:45. Take your break with your facilitator.
17:30 – 18:00 Doors close, and we pack downTools are counted back in one by one, so hand them over rather than putting them in a box.

Role

What you do

Get children started	Say what the station is in a sentence, then show the first step. Children finish their own work.
Keep the table going	Refill from the trays, clear offcuts, reset between visitors. Tell your facilitator when something is running low.
Stamp the passport	Every child carries a Science Passport and collects a stamp per station.
Use the tools once inducted	The chompsaws, glue guns and rotary tool are all yours to use once you have been inducted. Inductions are before the doors open, so ask for any you have not had.

What you never do

Take a child anywhere	Toilets, a parent, lost property: pass it to your facilitator.
Use a tool you have not been inducted on	Ask for the induction, or hand the job over.
Photograph children	Photographs are taken by iOi staff.
Use your phone at a station	Breaks are the time for it.

Tell your facilitator about anything at all: an injury however small, a child on their own, a tool that goes wrong, or something a child says that worries you. Jen is on Support all day and is the point of contact in the room.

Practical

Where	London Muslim Centre, 46 Whitechapel Road, E1 1JX, in the large room on the ground floor. Whitechapel and Aldgate East are both a few minutes away.
Bags
Food	Provided by ELM for all volunteers.

What to wear. An iOi t-shirt, given to you when you arrive. Under it, clothes you can get glue on and comfortable shoes you can stand in all day. As the centre is attached to a mosque, the venue asks visitors to wear modest clothing: please avoid shorts and dresses above the knee, as well as see-through or low-cut clothing.