Institute of Imagination ELM Science Fair · volunteer guide
Saturday 29 August 2026

Volunteer guide

London Muslim Centre, 46 Whitechapel Road, E1 1JX. The theme is space. You are on one station for the day, alongside the facilitator who runs it.

8:30
arrive
briefing at your station
9:00–17:30
open to the public
1
station each
with one facilitator
weather

The one rule everything else follows from

A volunteer is never left alone with children. Volunteers do not hold a DBS check, so a facilitator is on your station whenever children are at it. If your facilitator has to step away and nobody has taken their place, the station stops until they are back. That is the expected answer, not a problem you have caused.

What you do
Welcome people inSay what the station is in a sentence, and what a child will make.
Keep it stockedRefill materials from the trays. Tell the facilitator when something is running low, rather than going to find more.
Get a child startedShow the first step. Children finish their own work; a made thing that is theirs beats a neat one that is yours.
Stamp the passportEvery child carries a Science Passport with a stamp per activity, for prizes at the end.
Reset the tableBetween visitors: offcuts cleared, scissors back in the pot, the surface clear enough for the next child.
Use the tools
once inducted		The drill, the rotary tool, the chompsaws and the glue guns are all yours to use after your induction on them. Until you have had it, hand the job to your facilitator. Nothing at the tool area is off limits to a volunteer, it is off limits to an uninducted one.
What you do not do
Hold the station aloneNot for five minutes, not while the facilitator queues for coffee.
Take a child anywhereToilets, a parent, lost property: pass it to your facilitator.
Use a tool you have not been inducted onAsk, and get the induction, or hand the job over. This is a separate matter from being alone with children, and neither one excuses the other.
Photograph childrenPhotos are taken by iOi staff, against the permissions the event holds.
Take contact detailsIf a family wants to hear from us, point them at the iOi website or pass it to your facilitator.

Your day

  1. 8:30 Arrive and find your stationSecond floor, the large room. Setup is already going on around you.
  2. 8:30 – 9:00 Briefing, at your stationYour facilitator runs it: what the activity is, what a child makes, what is out of reach.
  3. Tool inductionOn every tool you will be using. Without it you hand the job to your facilitator.
  4. 9:00 – 17:30 Doors open, and the day runsDrop-in, so arrivals are continuous rather than in waves.
  5. ~13:00 The midday prayerDhuhr. The building gets busier and some people step away for 15 to 25 minutes.
  6. Your breakTaken with your facilitator, so the station is covered or closed for it.
  7. ~16:45 The afternoon prayerAsr.
  8. 17:30 Doors close, and we pack downEverything is packed and labelled at the venue. A courier collects it on Tuesday.

The stations

Nature's Engineers

Paper engineering. Flat paper folded, cut and curled into 3D buildings that join up into a city.

children's scissorsglueno heat

Nature Magnifiers

A little lens stuck onto a visitor's own phone with Blu Tack, to look closely at leaves, shells and seed heads. Same station as Nature's Engineers.

lenses are small, keep them on the tableno heat

Wind Tunnel

Children build something light enough to fly and test it in the airflow.

children's scissorsglue guns are adult-only

Moon Buggies

LEGO buggies, built and run down a cardboard ramp. Slope, speed and distance. Its own station.

LEGOrampno heat

Rockets

Same station as the Wind Tunnel and Junk Modelling Vehicles.

Sounds of the Universe

Quiet Creative Space

Junk Modelling Vehicles

Vehicles built out of junk and run down a slope. Same station as the Wind Tunnel and Rockets.

junkchildren's scissors

Junk Modelling

The materials area the making stations draw from. Keeping it sorted is most of the job.

cardboardtapeglue

Tool area

Staffed, and not a children's activity. Cutting and drilling that an activity needs happens here, done by an inducted adult.

drillchompsawsglue gunsrotary tool

Practical

Before you come
WearAn iOi t-shirt, given to you at setup. Clothes you can glue on.
BringA water bottle. Shoes you can stand in for a day.
Getting thereWhitechapel and Aldgate East are both a few minutes away. Seven steps at the front entrance, and no visitor parking.
Food
Prayer space
Tool inductionYou will be inducted on the tools you use. Ask for it before you touch one, not after.
Ask about the dayYour station facilitator first. They are named on the event board.