University of Silesia in Katowice

Introduction to Public Engagement with STEM – a gateway to bringing science alive to diverse audiences.

Join master public engagement trainer David Price for this hands-on and hearts-on highly interactive training session, boosting your skill set with:

• An appreciation of the types and effects of public engagement with STEM
• Bringing who you are into your STEM activities and the huge advantages this can bring
• Techniques for the effective use of technical language in your STEM engagement
• Performance skills that can make a real difference to the impact of our STEM engagement
• What to do with props (your kit), to make you and your STEM activities stand out
• How to take your STEM engagement, beyond Universities, the classroom, museum galleries and science festivals and into the lives, hearts and minds of our public everywhere.
• An appreciation that STEM skills can really help our careers as well and get us and our science noticed!
• And along with all the above, have a fantastic, fun-filled time engaged in a positive dialogue with like-minded individuals!

Register via the form: https://formularze.us.edu.pl/form/index/5297

The workshop with Andrea Brunello is designed for those who want to acquire the basic elements of science outreach and communication by means of storytelling.

Both theoretical and practical tools will be provided working on two basic aspects of storytelling: the construction of the story (dramaturgy) and its public restitution (stage presence and public speaking). The course structure and contents have been devised and workshopped many times in several research Institutions and Universities and is designed for those who need to meet an audience, not necessarily composed of experts in the field, and to find the keys to creating a sense of curiosity and wonder around the exposed scientific contents.

The contents of the course will be useful also to those interested in creating narrative podcasts or videocasts. We will also reason around the idea that storytelling can become a tool to aid in teaching and to better focus one’s scientific path. Several examples will be provided and, after a theoretical introduction on story construction, participants will be asked to identify themes / scientific subjects on which to focus attention. On those subjects, they will create scientific ‘narratives’.

We will start by devising a dramaturgical plot and then, by means of refining moments, they will create a short story. In the first part of the workshop, the fundamental techniques of story-writing will be used: the identification of the main theme, the construction of a plot, the devising of the characters with their objectives and obstacles, the hero’s journey and also how to fit the science into the narrative in an engaging way. In the second part of the workshop, we will work towards a simple dramatisation of the stories that will be created: voice, body, verbal and nonverbal communication. For this purpose, practical tools will be provided to develop participants’ skills in storytelling and public speaking. At the end of the workshop, if time allows, there will be a restitution of the work being devised, where participants will present their stories to fellow participants (and others interested in the results) in a series of micro presentations lasting a few minutes.

Register via the form: https://formularze.us.edu.pl/form/index/5297

Create your own science and arts (STEAM) activities and transdisciplinary courses for schools.

Teachers Europe-wide face many challenges in the modern classroom. They need to inspire their students, motivate them, and maintain discipline while competing with the numerous distractions of modern life and ever-changing needs of students. In Malta, through the CREATIONS and SciCultureD EU projects we developed a number of approaches to engage and excite students, while developing their 21st century skills and critical thinking.

In this workshop, participants will be able to create their own creative STEAM activity that they can deliver in their own schools. We will work with attendees using the CREATIONS (H2020 funded) pedagogical model which combines Inquiry-based Science Education (IBSE, REF) and RRI values (Responsible research and innovation, REF) with the Arts. In Malta, we engaged over 1,000 students (aged 11–15) and found that the approach boosted their confidence and motivation towards science.

The workshop will also train participants in storytelling and improvisation theatre, and help develop their public speaking skills. It will cover topics such as how to create a narrative quickly through fun activities.

Participants will also be able to develop their own transdisciplinary course using a toolkit developed by the SciCultureD (Erasmus+ funded) consortium based in Malta, Germany, Greece and Norway. They developed a card game that helps groups of people create courses based on a challenge they want their students to address or overcome. The card game uses a transdisciplinary approach around the design thinking double diamond using an open-ended pedagogy—simple, practical examples will be given to help with all the buzzwords.

The workshop will involve participants and help them develop their own creative activities and courses while practising their public speaking and science communication skills—prepare to surprise yourself.

Register via the form: https://formularze.us.edu.pl/form/index/5297