The Brighton Science Festival was established ten years ago in an attempt to make science more fun, to involve parents in their chidren’s scientific endeavours and to encourage more school students to take science A levels.

Bright Sparks is perhaps the best example of these three ambitions coming together in a single event; an hour spent there would demonstrate that the first two targets were being met, and surely there was enough going on to pique interest in going further with science.

Bright Sparks was packed full of demonstrations with plenty of opportunity for hands-on experimentation.

There was lots of choice too: my daughter was fascinated by the reptiles and the human body room, my son loved the computers and the engineering experiments. The event catered for all interests, from astronomy to aerodynamics, from mathematics to meteorology, it was all here.

Kids can often get bored after a while but mine were kept fully engaged for several hours, thanks to the expert demonstrators who showed admirable patience in dealing with several hundred enquiring minds.

This was our third year at the event and we liked the way that old favourites are mixed with the new.

Our only regret is that we have to wait for another year... and that I had nothing like this when I was young.