Participatory science communication to rise scientific vocations
Author: Helena González-Burón – Big Van Science, Spain
Co-author: Oriol Marimon Garrido – Big Van Science
In the PERFORM-H2020 project, we have investigated the use of storytelling to raise scientific vocations in secondary school students through the use of three different drama-based activities: Stand-Up Comedy in Spain, Improvisation-Theatre in France and Science-Busking in the UK.
Big Van Science have designed and implemented an interactive and self-mobilization participatory process (a key element to face directly the public engagement required for RRI) with secondary school students, their teachers and early career researchers with the aim of developing Science Communication Activities based on Scenic Arts. Thanks to the direct interaction generated between all of them during the designed participatory workshops, secondary school students address, in an interactive way based on scenic arts, the EU Societal Challenges and the values embedded in the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) such as Critical thinking and self-reflection, ethics in the research process, gender issues (leadership, entrepreneurship, digital skills) and performing skills, among others.
Through the process, the secondary school students have been actively involved in several participatory workshops to develop their own Scientific Stand-Up Comedy Shows in Spain, Improv-Shows in France and Busking activities in the UK, that have been delivered in their own schools. Thus, secondary school students have become agents to engage and to motivate other youngsters to approach STEM, becoming the new generation of Science Communicators through theater and stories.
In this workshop, Big Van Science will share the protocols of the participatory process in order to allow other Science Communicators, Science Educators, Teachers and Researchers to implement the PERFORM participatory process, enabling the generation of new groups of Secondary School Students Science Communicators.
The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.
Presentation type: Workshop
Theme: Society
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices