Kirsty, Maria and Michelle recently attended the University of Birmingham (UoB) public and cultural engagement day on Thursday 21st November at the Exchange.
It was a great day for the team members to learn about the variety of cultural and public engagement happening here at UoB, and reflect on their own experiences. Maria, Michelle and Kirsty have all engaged in a variety of forms of public engagement through their masters and PhDs. Eg.,
Closely working with those with lived experience to be advisors for their research projects
Working with applied organizations to improve the implementation of research findings
Sharing and disseminating findings with public such as through these blog posts and talks such as the Pint of Science talk
Devising a workshop to address training needs of those in dance education as identified by research participants.
Maria: “By collaborating with an applied organization in dance we were able to effectively and quickly communicate our research findings as well as involve individuals in dance in conversations about how to best share the research. Public engagement in my PhD research project helped to swiftly address practical implications from the research, reducing the “research to practice gap”.”
One of the highlights of the day was the team taking part in a podcast workshop run by Beck Lockwood who is the Communications Manager for Science and Technology at UoB. Beck reflected on the podcast series she created called The Curiosty Vault, hosted by Professor Alice Roberts. She talked us through the process of designing the podcast, the selection of the title and also the practicalities of podcast creation. We were then set the fun task of coming up with a podcast of our own in 20-minutes before presenting to the other groups and then voting for our favourites.
Maria, Michelle and Kirsty worked with Alessandro Di Maio (a light microscopy facilities manager at UoB) to come up with a podcast titled “The Odd Science Society” which focuses on weird and wonderful research papers that have been published over the years. And with this idea, the team managed to win the podcast creation competition!
Overall, a great day was had by all, with lots of reflections and ideas for the future! We would like to thank the public engagement team at the University of Birmingham for putting on such a great day!
Public engagement is an important research activity that has many benefits. Not only are you increasing the visibility of your work, but you are providing valuable opportunities for improving the quality of your work!
See examples of our public engagement activities to find out more and learn about different types of public engagement we have engaged with so far: Disadvantaged Communities | The Sprint Project
How can you engage with the public to improve and share your research?
Image credit and written by Kirsty Brown, Michelle Dwarika, and Maria Kolitsida
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