May events at Medway promise plant science, food, drink's and dragons!

Linda Nicolaides, Gillian Summers

30 April 2015

NRI, together with other colleagues from the Faculty of Science and Engineering, will be participating in a number of fascinating, fun, fact-filled and feisty events this May! Mark your calendar and invite your families to join in the fun.

Come and enjoy the Fascination of Plants Day 2015, on Sunday 17^th May. This annual worldwide event, launched under the umbrella of the European Plant Science Organisation, encourages people to celebrate the importance of plant science. Staff and students from NRI and the Department of Life and Sports Science at the University of Greenwich will be hosting a veritable plant party on the lawn in front of Pembroke building, Medway campus. Come and discover how fascinating plants are – as well as vital to our survival on the planet – through a variety of plant-based activities and exhibits which include: chocolate tasting, ‘messy science’ with plants, how plants get up your nose, foods produced from hydroponics; and find answers to questions such as: what attracts bugs and pollinators to plants? What makes plants tall or small? How green is your coffee? Can you spot all the plants in your day? There’ll also be a chance to win prizes and local produce, and learn more about the Faculty’s new MSc course ‘MSc in Applied Plant Science’. Come and share our enthusiasm and be inspired to think about plant science and conservation in new ways. For more information or to enter the raffle, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject line Fascination of Plants.

From fun with plants, we shift to a festival with a food focus: the Chatham Maritime Food & Drink Festival, running from 23–25^th May, on the riverside at Chatham Maritime. This event aims to celebrate the area’s maritime heritage with a wide range of locally produced foods, international gastronomic delights, music, and more foodie-related exhibits. The University of Greenwich, one of the event’s main sponsors, will participate with a stand dedicated to our food work, involving NRI and other colleagues from the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Canterbury Christchurch University’s Faculty of Health and Wellbeing, and the Medway School of Pharmacy. A variety of food-related demonstrations and interactive sessions will be available throughout the festival at the University stand. Come for insights and info on our food-related courses, especially our MSc in Food Innovation, MSc in Food Safety and Quality Management, and the brand new e-learning programme on Food Safety and Quality Management to be offered in 2016.

Here be dragons! Well, actually – dragon boats. For the uninitiated, a dragon boat is a 30–40 foot long, elaborately decorated, wooden Chinese war canoe with a dragon’s head and tail. On Sunday 24^th May, you have the chance to witness a fleet of such vessels fighting to claim glory in the 2015 Medway Dragon Boat Challenge in Basin 2, Chatham Maritime as part of the Food & Drink Festival. Assorted teams of vagabonds, pirates and mutineers from the University of Greenwich will be battling it out this year, including NRI’s very own ‘Never Rowed In a Boat’ team who are raising money for Medway Rotary Club, supporting many local and national charities and especially this year’s main charity ‘Children’s Hospice Holidays’. Show your support for this event by cheering on the day, and donating, using this link: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/neverrowedinaboatteam2015