An Overview of "Crash, Bang, Squelch!" for Volunteers
The biggest CHaOS event of the year is “Crash, Bang, Squelch!”, which happens on the first Saturday after lectures finish in Lent term. For 2025, this was Saturday 22nd March . This year we’ll be working with the Chemistry department alongside their annual Open Day, and filling their labs with lots of exciting hands-on experiments. We need as many as 150 student volunteers to help demonstrate our experiments to around 2,000 visitors throughout the day, which is where you fit in! As this is the Saturday after the end of lectures, you can have great fun helping out without worrying about work!
It’s a lot of science and a lot of fun in one place!
Sign-ups for CBS 2025 are now closed. Stay tuned in Lent Term 2026 for next year’s CBS!
What exactly does it involve?
We’ve got a huge number of hands-on experiments, over 60 at the last time we counted, that we’ve designed to demonstrate interesting scientific principles. On the day of the event each of these is explained to children and families by student volunteers. You might find yourself demonstrating how bridges stay up, why some things glow in the dark or even introducing children to Boris the skeleton. The ideas are simple, but with enthusiastic and interested demonstrators we can show children that science isn’t a ‘boring’ subject.
Check out a selection of our experiments here.
You can choose to demonstrate in the morning and/or afternoon – the event is open to the public 10am-4pm, although volunteers for the morning session should arrive at 9am to familiarise themselves with their experiments. Free refreshments are provided throughout the day, along with free lunch if you stay for the whole day. Even better, there may be a social event afterwards for all those who help!
If you want to see what happened at a recent in person “Crash, Bang, Squelch!” our report can be downloaded from here (2022)
I’ve never done anything like this before… will I be any good?
No experience is necessary, and every year we have loads of people who haven’t done CHaOS before. If you’re a scientist (including mathmos, vets, medics, engineers, compscis,…) you already know more than enough to demonstrate. The experiments have interesting and useful descriptions to explain the science and if you are unsure you can always ask one of the friendly committee members. We’ll also run several briefing sessions just before the event so you know exactly how everything will work on the day.
Questions?
If you’ve got any questions about volunteering at Crash Bang Squelch!, or about CHaOS generally, please get in touch with us at
volunteers@chaosscience.org.uk.