Outreach activities
It is the duty of all scientists to engage the general public in their work for 3 reasons. First the whole population need sufficient knowledge of science and understanding of the scientific method to be able to make informed contributions to debates about the societal impacts of research and future research priorities. Second an increased understanding of science and scientific method will allow people to make better use of scientific advances in their lives. Finally it is important to explain to people how the money being used for research is being spent. It is particularly important to engage young people in science, partly since (following the arguments above) they will be the voters and decision makers of the future, but also to inspire the next generation of scientists. As future research leaders it is essential that the ESRs have experience of explaining their work to people with a wide range of scientific experiences. We will explicitly train ERSs in outreach and expect them to participate in outreach activities. The ESRs will select at least one of the following activities and organize it, if necessary in collaboration with other ESRs from the network. The activity chosen can depend on the skills of the individual ESR.
1.
Marie Curie Ambassadors: ESRs will spend an afternoon
a week for 6 weeks in a school, gradually building up their experience of
working with school children from being an observer, through being a teaching
assistant to eventually delivering part of a lesson, designed to engage the
pupils using practical activities that are not easily available to teachers.
2.
General public open day: Timed to fit with local
festival (eg a science festival), this will involve opening the laboratory to
visitors, including tours and other demonstrations.
3.
Publicly accessible website: the HiMR ITN website will
include a section aimed at the general public, a section aimed at patients, a
section aimed at teachers and sections aimed at children of various ages. These
websites will explain the activities of the network and will include
educational games and quizzes for children, and teaching materials relevant to
the local school curriculum for teachers. This website will be made available
in all the languages of the ITN.
4.
The ESRs will create a quarterly newsletter, aimed at
presenting work from the network and reviewing and commenting on other recent
relevant scientific news in an accessible fashion. This will be distributed
around the campuses of the host institutions and in areas where the public may
pick them up (eg doctors’ surgeries). It will also be distributed via the
website
5.
ESRs will make a video aimed at explain UHF MRI scans
to patients; this video will be distributed to all partner sites for use when
preparing patients and volunteers for MR scans.
6.
ESRs will undertake ‘science busking’ activities which
involve taking small, hands on science activities to a fair or other event
where the general public are collecting, to engage the general public on a one
to one basis in a recreational environment.
All activities will highlight
Marie Curie Action funding to raise awareness of the scheme across the ERA. UNOTT
has a press office with extensive media contacts, which will be used highlight
all outputs from the network, along with press offices at relevant local sites.
One management tasks, M7 (Table B4.5), will be to promote outreach and
publicity.