My top 4 tips for effective science teaching / engagement

Every year, the Association of Science Education (ASE) hosts one of the largest science education conferences in Europe. Last week, I went to get my fix of the latest research and practice, seeing too many talks to relate them all but for my first blog of the year I will write about the top four things I took away from it. Naturally, the talks I went to reflected my interests: using evidence based interventions, using arts and discussion based interventions to foster engagement and deep learning, and to communicate science in a way that addresses inequality. As a result, this may give a somewhat narrow view of the conference but pleasingly, these topics were all fairly high on the agenda so here they are..

How do you deal with an anti-vaxxer?

I have written before about how too much sci-comm preaches to the converted, and whilst there is nothing particularly wrong with telling interested folks about interesting stuff, it is hardly going to change the world. But it is hard to engage the non-interested. They simply don’t turn up to science festivals, or science discussions, or science museums, or anywhere we happen to be doing science engagement, so we have to go to where they are and do it on their terms. I recently found a perfect spot - the steam room of my local swimming pool.

What's the best kind of public engagement?

Next week, I'll be delivering a talk in Oxford about public engagement into research (PER), specifically how to make PER more engaging through song. The thinking and research that I have been doing have led me to really hone in what is meant by PER and so this blog is relevant for any researchers who are, or are thinking about getting into PER and thinking about how to maximise engagement opportunities. According to a report conducted by the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, the vast majority of PER involves dissemination, whether through TV, blogs, books, articles, etc. It happens at the end of a research programme to tell the world about the findings. This is undoubtedly important since the public often fund the researchers work and it is important that they understand the outcomes. In many cases, research findings are important for the health and well-being of the public and sometimes research results in stuff that's just so darn interesting that it would be wrong not to let the public know. But how much do the researchers get back from this process and how engaged are the public going to be with this model? Not very much is the most probable answer.

Slime Science - amazing engagement

This weekend I saw something amazing. I witnessed thousands of children and their parents choose to go to a university mechanical engineering department to spend a frenzied couple of hours getting down with slime. Anyone who has spent any time around any 8 - 16 year olds in the last few months probably knows how exciting this must have been for the youngsters. And if you don't understand what's going on, slime is the latest kiddie craze, and the Institute of Making capitalised on this fact to achieve an incredible piece of science outreach. I have seen dozens of science outreach events and I'm not sure I have ever seen so many young faces looking so excited. The place was mobbed. So what was the secret to their success?

public engagementJonny BerlinerMarch 27, 2018Comment

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