I have to be honest - I was not a neutral observer at this event. I am partisan when it comes to Science Oxford, and when I saw review tickets available, I snapped them up because my kids absolutely love the place, and have been nagging me to take them again ever since we first went a couple of months back.

The core of Science Oxford, for those who don’t know, is a large room full of fantastic hands-on science activities for kids, each of which has some educational content and thinking tasks attached to it, but which can equally simply be enjoyed for fun. Of particular interest to my eight-year old (and, admittedly, myself) is the rotating table top on which participants can set discs spinning. We were there for a long time, trying to get four going at once without them crashing into each other, completely mesmerised.

Meanwhile, my four-year old loved the ‘gear table,’ full of cogs and handles that, when correctly connected, get bell wheels, acrobats and clock innards spinning and whirring in a most satisfying manner.

There is also plenty to occupy adults, with brain teasers such as the Tower of Brahma keeping me engrossed for some time. All that - as well as the powerful microscopes, fans blowing balls around rubes, drainpipe construction boards and a version of Guess Who? using rare stones - make this a great day out even when there is no event on.

On this particular day, however, we were treated to some fascinating insights into all things bee courtesy of the Oxfordshire Beekeepers Association. We got to see a ‘bee frame’ in mid-honeycomb production, along with the tools and techniques involved in the process; make our own beeswax candles; and taste honeycomb harvested that very day!

Definitely recommended for a family day out (there is also a nice woodland to explore, though we ran out of time for that), and you can be sure that your kids will from then on consider ‘science’ something associated with fun and excitement, rather than something scary and forbidding.