Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Sci4all (Science is for all of us)

Teaser

o Enhancing both public knowledge and understanding of scienceo Motivating and inspiring youth to enjoy, understand and pursue STEM by connecting them with outstanding scientists and innovations.o Enhancing the recognition of researchers and their role in societyo Bringing the...

Summary

o Enhancing both public knowledge and understanding of science
o Motivating and inspiring youth to enjoy, understand and pursue STEM by connecting them with outstanding scientists and innovations.
o Enhancing the recognition of researchers and their role in society
o Bringing the public and science closer together and facilitate a bidirectional flow of information using citizen science
o Explaining the benefits of research to the public and how it influences daily life
o Increasing public awareness of the diversity of scientific research
o Enabling people to become closer to and more involved with cultural heritage but also show diverse cultural heritage topics
o Offering an exciting learning experience that would help celebrate diversity and promote intercultural appreciation, mutual understanding and respect.
o Enabling a greater visibility for research centres, students, researchers, college teachers and innovative projects

Work performed

Awareness:
o Conception, production and display of promotional material, namely folders, programmes, roll-ups, sent to numerous schools in Vienna, as well as to the participants in the various activities, displayed during public events;
o Publication of over 20 promotional articles in written press (newspapers and magazines);
o Publication of a press release;
o Revamping, constant updating and maintenance of project website, namely http://sci4all.eu; 27.533 views by 4.474 unique visitors; 7.401 sessions (June to October 2018), of which 1.545 during the last week prior to the event;
o Publication of over 65 promotional articles on on-line accounts of newspapers and magazines as well as mentions in event calendars;
o Publication of over 30 postings on Twitter from European Researchers’ Night Twitter page
o Publication of over 70 postings on Facebook from PRIA’s European Researchers’ Night Facebook page as well as multiple postings by exhibitors and other institutes as well as private persons;
o Several postings on Xing and LinkedIn;
o Several hundred thousands people made aware of the Researchers\' night and its objectives.
Event:
o Offer of the activities as planned in the Annex I Part B to the Grant Agreement, namely:
o 11 different activities including:
o 49 science booths;
o 16 school workshops;
o 9 cultural heritage stations;
o 16 workshops;
o 6 science slams;
o 5 teen science slams;
o 6 citizen science challenges;
o 6 Science Cafés;
o 5 EU Corner stations;
o 2 “Die Technik ist weiblich” stations as well as
o several social activities;
o The created programme involved researchers from diverse research and educational institutions and companies, namely:
o 13 universities:
o 6 high schools
o 8 non-university research institutes:
o 12 non-government organizations:
o 11 companies:
o 7 government initiatives and organizations:
o Active involvement of 186 researchers, of whom:
o 72 female and 114 male;
o 8 having benefitted from MSC schemes;
o 32 having benefitted from another EU support (FP7, HORIZON 2020);
o The event was attended by over 5.800 visitors

Final results

o Typology of visitors: the event was attended by over 5.800 visitors, of who 20% under 10, 20% aged 10-15, 15% aged 15-20, 15% 20-40, 20% 40-60 and 10% 55-75 years), with about 40 % female and 60 % male attendees.
o Qualitative semi-structured interviews with 24 pupils and students containing a consistent set of questions about the positive or negative aspects of the event as well as about their career and STEM preferences as well as online survey collected from 84 pupils and students developed to investigate their knowledge and understanding of science and the influence of their participation in the event.
o During the events 25 parents and adult visitors were also interviewed with the aim to summarize the view of the child’s interest in STEM and indicating how likely they would be to participate in another event in the future.
o We interviewed 27 researchers in a set of consistent and structured questions to rate and comment their experience participating in the event.
o Main conclusions:
o Pupils and students:
o There was notably a great wish for more events this kind, where the science and related achievements can be seen and tested;
o They were impressed with achievements and how far is science ahead of currently used technologies and what is even more to expect in the future.
o Pupils and students described the workshops and boots that had hands-on activities as the most successful. Moreover, very positive response was also noticed from the citizen science bridge, where were grouped several citizen science projects.
o Increased interest in STEM topics and a career in science for visitors from technical schools or universities, many planning to work or study in the field of computer sciences, electrical or mechanical engineering;
o After having participated at the ERN 54,8 % reported to know more about the work of the scientists than before;
o Over 15,5 % (13) of the students and pupils responded that their interest in studying science and becoming scientists increased;
o Interest in participating in a future similar event: 85,7 % interested (40,5% very interested and 45,2 % somewhat interested).
o Parents and teachers:
o Parents, which were mostly accompanied with small children (3-8 years) on the event, noticed that their children had very positive feedback and showed a lot of enthusiasms participating particularly gladly in hands-on activities;
o Parents and visitors valued also the dedication of the event to citizen science and chance to participate in some projects one or two months before the event;
o Teachers greeted the European Researchers\' Night, acknowledging how much this kind of event can contribute to the pupils knowledge in STEM.
o Interest in participating in a future similar event: 96 % interested (72 % very interested and 24 % somewhat interested).
o Positive appreciation of the gathering of numerous activities in a single place, (parents) and wish for an earlier start as to allow the insertion of the visit in the school time (teachers);
o Researchers:
o They prized the wide range of participants and visitors, very good publicity and good organization of the event;
o 25,9% indicated that the event completely met their expectations by giving five of five points and further 44,4 % rated that the event mostly met their expectations by giving four of five points.
o The confirmation of future participation by about 70,4 %, (51,9 % strongly agree and 18,5 % agree);

Website & more info

More info: http://sci4all.eu.