YOUNGSTERS from Winchester got to grips with technology this week as they take part in a series of "hands on" workshops at IBM in Hursley.

More than 380 students from around 80 schools in Hampshire descended on the laboratories from Monday to today (March 10 to 13) to take part in the firm's major youth event, Blue Fusion.

The event has been running for 13 years and aims to inspire and encourage young people to develop their interest in science, engineering and technology as part of National Science and Engineering Week.

To make sure the subjects and skills sink in, IBM makes the workshops as fun and hands on as possible for the year 10 and 11 pupils.

Among the activities they got stuck into were Body Maze, where the pupils piloted a nano-probe' through a model of the human body to deliver the necessary drugs directly to particular organs.

Also popular was the bio-mechanical arm activity, which pupils had to control to learn about muscle co-ordination.

Blue Fusion organiser, Timothy Ward, said: "Blue Fusion is a great event, it's been fantastic to organise and the whole team are really looking forward to seeing the results of all their hard work and making a difference to the way students see science and technology. We hope that the students learn as much playing the activities as we did producing them."

10:09am Thursday 13th March 2008

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