A science festival is aiming to take the subject out of the classroom and into the realm of everyday life.

The Oxfordshire Science Festival will feature more than 50 events, most of them free.

They include 60 Minutes of Sex, a talk on the science of reproduction by Dr Domenico Di Ceglie and Dr Petra Boynton at the Oxford Playhouse; a dinosaur walk around Little Wittenham Nature Reserve; a look at Mars in Harwell and an exploration of wildlife biology at the Cotswold Wildlife Park, Burford.

Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy, who is Oxford University’s professor for the public understanding of science, will kick off the extravaganza with an open-air gameshow based on his BBC TV programme Mind Games, in Bonn Square, on Saturday, February 28.

In previous years, the county has held a Science Week, but this year the organisers are being more ambitious.

The festival is a collaboration between Oxford University, the Medical Research Council, Oxford Brookes University, Oxf-ord Inspires, Oxford’s Natural History Museum, Science Oxford, the UK Atomic Energy Authority at Culham and the Wellcome Trust for Human Genetics.

Co-ordinator Renee Watson said: “From Banbury to Burford and beyond, people will have the opportunity to stretch their minds at seminars and demonstrations, to get their hands busy making slime, looking down microscopes and getting up close and personal with wildlife.”

Prof du Sautoy said: “It’s important to take science to people and I’m going back to my old school in Henley, where I learned my love of maths, to give a talk and do a workshop with the kids.”

The festival runs from February 28 to March 15. For details, see oxfordshiresciencefestival.co.uk tairs@oxfordmail.co.uk