Glasgow Science Festival in Action 2024
GSF in Action 2024: Public Engagement & Events Training
Join Dr Deborah McNeill, Director of the Glasgow Science Festival (GSF) for an exciting opportunity to collaborate, create and deliver highly engaging STEM activities for young people. PGR students from the Colleges of Science & Engineering (CoSE) and Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences (MVLS) are invited to join our extended training scheme, taking place online and in-person throughout spring and summer 2024.
There will be a combination of taught sessions and small group work, focusing on content development. Followed by a process of review and refinement. You will then deliver your groups activities at an event during GSF 2024, which runs from the 6th to 16th June.
Throughout the course you will develop useful skills such as:
- Effective group working
- Understanding your audience
- Development and delivery of high-quality STEM engagement content
- Creation of supporting materials
- Project and budget planning
The programme is a series of taught components and self-led group work. Some sessions are timetabled and others you will schedule to suit your group. Due to the nature of the training, learning is progressive and builds directly on previous sessions. As such- Please only apply if you can attend all sessions on the 13th and 14th March (sessions 1-5).
|
Date |
Session |
Time |
Type |
Session Title |
|
Wed 13th March |
1 |
10.00-11.00 |
Class- online Teams |
Intro to PE |
|
|
2 |
11.30-13.00 |
Class- online Teams |
Creating activities |
|
|
3 |
14:00-16:00 |
Class- online Teams |
Project brief & explore the theme |
|
Thurs 14th March |
4 |
10.00-12.00 |
Class- online Teams |
Activity development |
|
|
5 |
13.00-16.00 |
Class- online Teams |
Activity development |
|
Thurs 28th March |
6 |
TBC with Debbie |
Group- online Teams |
Progress review with Debbie |
|
Thurs 11th April |
7 |
17.00 deadline |
Group working |
Submit draft activity materials |
|
Thurs 25th April |
8 |
TBC with Debbie |
Group- in person |
Play session |
|
Thurs 9th May |
9 |
17.00 deadline |
Group working |
Submit final activity materials |
|
1 day during 6th-16th June |
10 |
TBC |
Group- in person |
Delivery at Glasgow Science Festival |
Programme Info
Sessions 1-5: All participants attend five compulsory taught components, delivered online (MS Teams) over two days. During these sessions, we will work through the process of developing effective engagement activity, introducing you to tools you will use in your own activity development, allocate you to a group and begin the development of your group’s activity. Centred around a theme we will give you.
Sessions 6-9: From this point onwards, you are working in your small groups. We no longer have timetabled sessions, so it is up to each group to determine workloads, when you are meeting etc. Please ensure you factor in time during these weeks for working on the programme.
Session 6: Progress review with Debbie- each group meets with Dr McNeill to review progress since the activity development sessions (sessions 4 & 5). This will be arranged at a time and date that suits each group and will last between 30-60 mins.
Session 7: Each group will submit all activity materials for review. This includes activity worksheet(s), kit lists/ shopping lists and any supplementary materials e.g. posters, hand-outs. The group will have tested any experiments, games, prototypes ahead of this deadline.
Session 8: Play (practice) session in-person at the University of Glasgow. This is the chance for your group to do a walkthrough of your activity, practice delivery and get feedback. Before attending this session, you will have liaised with the festival team to ensure that you have all materials needed to achieve this.
Session 9: Final deadline to submit all activity materials for review ahead of delivery.
Session 10: Delivery of your activity at the festival. We will arrange the date and time of your delivery session with each group. You are more than welcome to deliver your activity as part of more than one event.
Joining Info
Location: Online- Microsoft Teams and in-person venues TBC
Participants: This project is funded by the University of Glasgow CoSE & MVLS Graduate schools, with space for 16 CoSE and 16 MVLS PGR students. With thanks to our funders for their ongoing support.
Application deadline: Wednesday 21st Feb, 5pm
Application response: We will respond by Wednesday 28th Feb to confirm participation on the course.
GSF in Action Application Form 2024
GSF in Action 2024 Info & Timetable - download a copy of the course info shared above