CVR Goes to Guides

Public Engagement with Research Case studies

Introduction

The goal of the ‘CVR goes to Guides’ project is to take biology-themed activities to Girl Guide units, particularly those in underserved communities who don’t often get the opportunity to visit science festivals or the science centre.

By providing a variety of age-appropriate activities centred around germs and viruses, we aim to introduce them to scientific concepts within the familiar environment of their Guide meeting.

The girls have the opportunity to meet real-life scientists who live and work in their local community and we hope to encourage them to develop an interest in STEM subjects.

CVR goes to Guides was developed and delivered by Claire Donald & Michelle Pearson from MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research. The Project was Highly Commended in the MVLS Engagement Award 2019 rewarding good public engagement practice with MVLS research.

Project Partners

GirlGuiding Scotland – Various Rainbow, Brownie and Guide units across Greater Glasgow and Fife

Where did the idea or need come from?

The MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR) identified a need to reach out to audiences that have an interest in science but who may not necessarily be able to attend local science festivals or the Glasgow Science Centre.

We decided to use existing contacts within the CVR staff to target uniformed organisations in the local area.

In particular, the aim was to target young girls, to encourage an interest in STEM subjects and to allow them to meet and chat with female scientists.  Through ‘The CVR goes to Guides’ initiative, we can target key groups of youngsters and introduce them to scientific concepts within the familiar environment of their weekly Guiding meeting.

The project is entirely funded through public engagement grants allowing us to attend the groups free of charge and provide all the equipment and materials, including items they can take home with them, such as DIY soap and crafty germs.

The overwhelming success of the project, which has been largelyconveyed through word-of-mouth and by our online presence, allowed us to host some of the older girls at the CVR facilities where we were able to give them a taste of what working in a research laboratory is like.     

Evaluation and Impact

Our sessions are evaluated using a sticker chart which allows the participants to rate their enjoyment of the activities.

We also ask for written feedback with the older girls to understand which activities worked well and what could be improved.

Our evaluations indicated that some of our activities were too complex for the younger groups we visited and so we devised a new set of activities for this age group. These could be further modified to suit a broad age range and proved to be a hit with the older girls as well.

Having established contacts with some of the groups CVR attended allowes us to follow up with the leaders to find out if our sessions have helped to influence the girls course choices at school or university. 

Lessons learned

We were surprised by the number of requests we received when we rolled out the initiative. The appetite for science learning is there if you know where to look.

Top Tip - have a couple of age-adaptable activities so you can cater for a broad age range and your audience can get the most from your session.   

Legacy

We have formed partnerships with several Girl Guide units and have been invited back to run sessions with other units in their district.

In the future, we hope to produce a resource that can be shared with units across the country allowing us to greatly expand our reach.

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