Festival
3 October University: Science Market
- Date
- Saturday 3 October 2026
- Time
- Address
- Steenschuur
Leiden
Smell scents with the help of language, discover how good your navigation skills are and train an AI model. Try these activities and much more at 3 October University.
This unique science-filled market has something for visitors of all agest. Discover what a wolf has eaten by examining real wolf scat. How steady are your hands? Put your skills to the test with the giant Operation game. How good are you at identifying different smells? Find out how smart your nose is. And learn how people find their way when they get lost.
Packed with science, games, and discoveries, the Science Market is an initiative of Leiden University in collaboration with the Augustinus student association. This year, Leiden University of Applied Sciences and mboRijnland will also have stalls with thought-provoking activities.
Join us at the Science Market on the most fun day of the year and discover something new!
All activities
Dissect wolf scat
Scientists study wolf scat to find out what wolves eat. In the Netherlands, this mainly turns out to be game such as wild boar, roe deer and red deer. In areas where game is less plentiful, wolves also prey on wild cattle. Take a close look at the hair and bones found in wolf scat, and see if you can work out what the wolf’s last meal.
Can you learn faster than AI?
An AI model like ChatGPT need training to become more intelligent. What does this training involve? And how does AI make decisions? These are some of the questions Thomas Moerland and his colleagues are investigating. Come along and try training your brain like a language model, find your way through the maze and see who’s faster: you or the computer.
Ahoy there! Navigate like a pirate
Grab your cutlass and enter a mysterious maze in search of buried treasure! You’ll see parrots, pirate hats and telescopes along the way. How well can your brain remember the route? During this fun activity, you’ll discover how spatial memory works and how your brain creates a mental map of its surroundings. You’ll also learn that orientation and mapmaking don’t come equally easy to everyone, and that differences in sense of direction are perfectly normal. Come aboard me hearties!
How smart is your nose?
Our sense of smell is much better than we often realise. Want to find out how good you are at identifying different smells? And how language can help? Play our KŌDŌ game and put the smells in the correct order. Will you have the winning nose?
Discover the buzzing nightlife around flowers
During the day, we see honeybees and bumblebees buzzing around flowers, but what happens after sunset? To find out, researchers installed special cameras in nature reserves. Their footage reveals the night shift hard at work, ensuring that the vital process of pollination continues uninterrupted. The researchers are looking at whether these pollinators still show up for their shift when the night is illuminated in various colours.
There are far too many hours of video footage for the researchers to analyse by themselves, so they’ve trained an AI model to identify the insects automatically. Now it’s your turn to take on this supercomputer. Watch the videos, count how many pollinators you can spot and identify them before time runs out. Can you beat the machine and claim the high score?
Play a life-sized Operation game
You’ll need a steady hand and nerves of steel for this life-sized version of Operation. You’re the surgeon, and your task is to operate on your patient without your hand shaking. The more precise you are, the greater the chance of a successful operation.
Resilience in Action
What do you do when faced with adversity? Who helps you keep going? Play our Resilience Race game and find out. Through a series of short challenges and games, you’ll discover what helps when times are tough and how support from others can make a difference. At the end, you’ll build a support wall and find out which forms of support other visitors value most. Come and join in!
Stars connect cultures
Did you know that people all over the world often tell the same stories? Find out with Jos van den Broek what national flags featuring stars can reveal about this. You’ll be surprised by the meanings that stars hold in different cultures and religions.
Test your knowledge in our quiz and discover what you know about stars and the stories they tell. Children can also enjoy a creative hands-on activity: making their own stars to take home.
What stories are hidden in the landscape?
Traumascapes are physical places associated with collective grief and trauma. This could include concentration camps or plantations in former colonies or even the Groningen gas field.
Archaeologists, historians, psychologists and other researchers are working to ensure these places are recognised, discussed and made more inclusive. Step into the world of their research: try your hand at redesigning a traumascape and reflect on how we engage with these special places. If you know of a place associated with collective trauma, you can share your story on our discussion board and help the researchers in their work.
Botanical art: Make a podcast or a picture
What’s your favourite plant? Is it a fern for its beautiful leaves? Or ivy because it provides a hiding place for so many different animals? Visit the stall of the Leiden University of Applied Sciences’ Nature and Child Development research group and tell the researchers about the connection you feel with animals and plants. Share your story as a mini podcast, a poem, a picture or a clay impression of a plant.
Human sticker sheets: write and draw your ideas for good care
What does good care mean to you? Draw a picture, write down your ideas or choose an image and add it to our human sticker sheets: researchers Desiree Bierlaagh and Nellie Klaassen from mboRijnland. They are collecting surprising and personal stories and experiences about quality of life and the care people need. By taking part, you'll help the researchers gather valuable input for their new research project on long-term care.
Pieter’s Print Room
Did you know that Leiden University is incredibly old? Four hundred and fifty-one years old, to be precise. If our walls could talk, they'd have many a story to tell. We also have lots of special traditions. In a way, we're a bit like Hogwarts. And although there aren't any wizarding students here, we do have lots of other enthusiastic, funny and brilliant students and scholars.
University historian Pieter Slaman will tell you all about our rich history of research and teaching. Choose a photo from the past, put on a mortar board and step inside Pieter’s Print Room to discover the stories of Leiden University for yourself.
Electric quiz
Take on the challenge in our interactive electric quiz game. Test your knowledge of the university’s buildings, the university and 3 October, the languages studied here and much more. Choose your favourite topic or try them all.