UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2019:
The videos of the FUV course are now available here.
On May 4, 2019, during the third day of the course in Science Communication and Dissemination organised by associate partner Fondazione Umberto Veronesi (FUV), our ESRs were involved in a dissemination activity in a high school as part of the practical sessions. It was both a training and dissemination activity at the same time. TRANSMITers were divided into three groups: each one was given the task of presenting a talk to a fourth class of the linguistic high school of the Virgilio Institute (Liceo Virgilio), located in Milan. The three groups were composed as follows:
- Group 1: ESR4 Christina Schmidt, ESR2 Ana Carolina B. Sant’Anna Silva and ESR8 Ana Catarina da Silva Almeida;
- Group 2: ESR10 Luca Zampieri, ESR3 Floriana Jessica Di Paola and ESR11 Daniela Weber;
- Group 3: ESR7 Maheshwor Thapa, ESR9 Houda Abla and ESR5 Nikkitha Umesh Ganesh.
ESRs were left totally free to choose the subject of their presentation and the style of communication, nonetheless, they were also encouraged to carefully consider the specific target audience: a high school class of 23 pupils aged 17.
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Right after the presentations, there was also a moment for discussion: the high school students had the opportunity to ask questions to the ESRs about their work, the project and cancer in general. This moment for questions/answers took place in a lively atmosphere and aroused the curiosity and interest of the students. Although most of the ESRs had already had some experience in dissemination and outreach activities to the general public (including children) during the 2018 European Researchers’ Night, this was actually the first time ever that they had an audience exclusively composed of teenagers in a school setting. At the end of the talks, the high school students were asked to evaluate each of the three groups, on a basis of clearness, originality and entertainment. Overall, their response to the three presentations was very positive in terms of efficacy. Congratulations to our TRANSMITers on the great result they achieved!
#ScienceCommunication #Dissemination #TRANSMITers
A VOICE FROM OUR ESRs ON THE OVERALL EXPERIENCE
“The three-day workshop in Science Communication and Dissemination held in Milan organised by TRANSMIT partner FUV taught us some effective science communication techniques since communication is an integral part of a researcher’s job and it is our obligation to let the public know how this money is spent. Communicating about our research projects should aim to demonstrate the ways in which research and innovation is contributing to a better world. Thanks to FUV, TRANSMIT ESRs were able to better understand the importance of communication and useful ways to survive an interview or a press conference. We also had the opportunity to disseminate our project to a class of high school students who were very curious about the TRANSMIT mission. We also had a practical session where we simulated a press conference and were guided by FUV on how to elegantly tackle any stressful situation that can arise. Overall, this workshop helped us to get a step closer to bridge the gap between the research and the general public!”
(Nikkitha Umesh Ganesh, ESR 5 at UNIBO – DIMEC)
FUV & THE PROMOTION OF SCIENCE AWARENESS
One of the central missions of FUV is the scientific divulgation, as a privileged tool to promote science awareness. So, School becomes the natural place to implement science dissemination activities. For this reason, since its foundation, FUV has been active in organising educational events dedicated to students and teachers of every grade of education: primary and secondary school and university Such activities include educational and interactive laboratories for children, with a focus on nutrition and DNA, conferences and special classes on the hottest topic in biomedical research. Find out more here.
You can watch the videos of the FUV course here.