Big Bang Fair 2025: Highlights from the UK’s Largest STEM Celebration

Big Bang Fair 2025: Highlights from the UK’s Largest STEM Celebration

The Big Bang Fair is the UK's largest celebration of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). The 2025 edition took place from 17th to 19th June at the NEC, Birmingham.

Last year, more than 20,000 students and 2000 teachers attended the fair, making it a large-scale STEM event. So, what happened this year? Take a look at what made this year’s event truly special. 

The Big Bang Fair 2025 

The Big Bang Fair is free and open to UK state-funded school groups for the following groups:

  • Years 6 to 8 in England and Wales 

  • P7 to S2 in Scotland 

  • Years 7 to 9 in Northern Ireland 

Schools can attend one of two sessions each day:

  • Morning session (9 am to 12 pm)

  • Afternoon session (1 pm to 4 pm)

What Happened This Year?

All activities at the Big Bang Fair are for children 10 to 13 years old. They have grouped these activities into the following categories:

1. Big Bang Competition Showcase

The competition showcase is a grand display of STEM projects. It gives students a chance to showcase their innovations, designs and experiments. The topics for this year were: 

  • AI and technology

  • Environment and sustainability

  • Materials and textiles

Here are some of the standout winners from 2025:

Award 

Recipient 

Project Title

UK Young Engineer of the Year

Aaron Lord, Greenhead College

Autopill

UK Young Scientist of the Year

Alice Morrish, Invicta Grammar School

Quantum Karate

UK Young Technologist of the Year

Muhammad Shah, Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet

‘Icarus’

Special mentions were also given in unique categories such as innovation, inclusivity, and international opportunity.

Award 

Recipient 

Project Title

The Intellectual Property Office Innovation Award

Aina Dyandra, Park View School

Aerate: If Clean Air Was a Breath Away 

The 66th London International Youth Science Forum Award

Ava McGurk, St Dominic's High School, Belfast,

Toxic Positivity - A Positive Pandemic

The UCL Engineering Inclusive Design for a Fairer World Award

Snehal Das, Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet

Product to support children with learning difficulties.

2. Big Bang Explore

The Big Bang Explore ensures that children make the most of all the activities at the fair. It’s a guided task to help children:

  • Try new activities 

  • Identify skills like creativity, teamwork, problem-solving, and like in action.

  • Take the ‘Meet the Future You’ quiz to find out how your strengths and skills connect to an engineering type. For instance, a student might discover their strength in creativity while designing a solution to an environmental problem. 

3. Guess Who?

The ‘Guess Who?’ is a unique meet and greet. It introduces children to inspirational individuals working in STEM. Through these interactions, students learn about the stereotypes concerning skills in STEM, career routes, specific roles and their descriptions. 

11 panellists graced the Big Bang Fair this year. Some of whom are: Safety and Reliability Engineer, Birjan Ramadan; HPC Systems Specialist - IT Support, Daniel Pizzaro; Orthopaedic Development Engineer, Kirsten Bottom; and Graduate Research Scientist, Niamh Holland.

4. Discover Your Skills

The organisers set up an interactive career activity area for students. Here, three activities wait for students, which test skills like creativity, teamwork, speaking, listening and problem-solving. 

These three activities are:

  • Debate – They present students with solutions on hot topics such as climate change and technology. The students have to listen to opinions and agree or disagree logically. 

  • Odd One Out — 4 images, and each one is the odd one out. Students have to see and explain why! 

  • Tinkering space — Students have to choose from three design challenges presented to them. Each one requires them to tweak, test, and create their outcomes. It is an opportunity to celebrate failures and realise that excellent things can happen even when things don’t go their way.

5. Meet the Future You

‘Meet the Future You’ was a fun, interactive way for students to see how their skills and interests could align with a future in STEM. You can take the quiz here and see for yourself. 

Some More Highlights

Here are some more unforgettable moments from The Big Bang Fair 2025:

  • Learners took part in hands-on activities like coding robots, playing drone football, and solving escape room-style challenges.

  • Live stage shows returned this year. It included a brand-new show on biomimicry from ZooLab UK, featuring snakes, geckos, and giant cockroaches. During these sessions, children explored how these animals inspired engineers in their inventions. 

  • Learners got to try operating a submarine, designing planes, and exploring 3D printing with Rolls-Royce.

Your Child Can Take the Big Bang Challenge Too! 

If your child loves taking challenges, you must explore the Big Bang Challenge. They get to build a STEM project in an easy, step-by-step manner. There are seven themed challenges in total, and kids can try as many as they like! Furthermore, these challenges are for children who are 11 to 18 years old. Children get certificates and e-badges along the way to celebrate their progress.

Conclusion

The Big Bang Fair 2025 was full of innovation, creative thinking, and problem-solving. It is inspiring to see so many young minds come together and create solutions that have the power to change the world. 

Skillmatics believe in introducing STEM at an early age to children to inspire them to explore the field and pursue it. Our collection of STEM toys engages children in screen-free, fun learning at their own pace. It keeps them active and encourages them to think differently.

Explore our collection of learning games, designed on the STEM principles for your kids and invest in their growth. 

Reference links:

Big Bang Explore

Meet the Future You Quiz

Big Bang Challenge

 

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