Children's Winter Lecture: Reign of the Dinosaurs

Our annual Children’s Winter Lecture returns on 20 December, giving local children a chance to learn about our research in a fun and engaging way.

This year’s theme is the Reign of the Dinosaurs, as evolutionary biologist Dr Ciara O’Donovan takes our audience of children aged 7-12 and their families on a journey 230 million years back in time.

Events like this children's lecture allow researchers to share their expertise and passion for discovery with the next generation. As part of the University's outreach efforts, these interactive lectures give local young people the chance to engage with our work, ask questions, and let their imaginations run wild.

The lecture will cover how dinosaurs came to rule the world, following their evolution and spread across the globe. Children will learn about how one species diversified into hundreds of unique dinosaurs before a catastrophic asteroid collision brought their reign to an end. Or was it something else entirely?

Ciara researched dinosaur evolution as part of her PhD at the University. Her work at Reading focused on the evolutionary processes that have acted over hundreds of millions of years to produce an astounding diversity of life on Earth.

After completing this, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher here for around 4 years and recently began work at science eLearning platform Labster.

The lecture is now fully booked, but the event will be recorded and available to watch at a later date. You can also watch Ciara talking about her PhD research below.