Ideas online: Outreach from home
Rowena Fletcher-Wood
Freelance
rowena.fletcherwood@gmail.com
ECG Bulletin January 2021
Freelance
rowena.fletcherwood@gmail.com
ECG Bulletin January 2021
In October 2020, the IF Oxford ideas festival (1) went online. To maximise opportunities for participation, the festival, which usually spans ten days in Oxford, was transformed into a month-long online celebration of science, featuring a digital ‘explorazone’, on-demand events in the auditorium, and pre-recorded videos and resources. It was a novel and ambitious format. The ECG’s “Blue Skies Science” booth (Figure 1) was resourced by eight volunteers from our committee and membership.
Figure 1. The ECG booth in the IF Oxford Explorazone Exhibit Hall.
It’s impossible to know from afar how popular the events were – without a glimpse round a busy auditorium, a number count, or a flurry of activity that crashes the platform – but it was quiet in the live chatroom on Saturday 17th October. This is the day that, had the event been live, volunteers would have staffed stalls in Oxford to engage with the public, play with air quality monitors, and talk passionately about environmental science. Instead, we sat at home, hoping for questions.
Although a lot of preparation goes into any public engagement, IF Oxford was an extreme: between us, the team wrote, produced, edited and publicised nine videos on topics from particulate matter to microplastics to the iron content of rivers (2). This was a time-consuming activity. At the time of writing, these videos have received ~100 views on YouTube, and are still accessible online (3).
Based on the videos, we also hosted a quiz (4). The questions probe observational skills (for example, “What are some things you may observe when dry ice is added to ocean water and pH indicator?”) and encourage learning chemical names and acronyms. Results showed that participants found the observation skills most challenging, and highlights misconceptions such as the equivocation of carbon dioxide gas and steam.
In our “How Tos”, we have published resources for outreach providers and teachers, both in the Bulletin and online (5). However, with recent demand for resources parents can use with children at home, we also created activity sheets for participants to take home and try later. These will be appearing on our website and in our Bulletins in the near future (6).
Resources
Although a lot of preparation goes into any public engagement, IF Oxford was an extreme: between us, the team wrote, produced, edited and publicised nine videos on topics from particulate matter to microplastics to the iron content of rivers (2). This was a time-consuming activity. At the time of writing, these videos have received ~100 views on YouTube, and are still accessible online (3).
Based on the videos, we also hosted a quiz (4). The questions probe observational skills (for example, “What are some things you may observe when dry ice is added to ocean water and pH indicator?”) and encourage learning chemical names and acronyms. Results showed that participants found the observation skills most challenging, and highlights misconceptions such as the equivocation of carbon dioxide gas and steam.
In our “How Tos”, we have published resources for outreach providers and teachers, both in the Bulletin and online (5). However, with recent demand for resources parents can use with children at home, we also created activity sheets for participants to take home and try later. These will be appearing on our website and in our Bulletins in the near future (6).
Resources
- To offer Pay What Your Decide support or find out more about the festival, visit https://if-oxford.com/events/
- To find and use our resources, visit https://if-oxford-explorazone.vfairs.com/
- To watch our videos now that the festival is over, visit https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEcpvYrIhPMYH25hcBY5oNVBo1qwi1A_w
- To answer our quiz, visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeG1hbWTnChjSazJl_hHNHOs4dVOc6KQd585lzXyAgPAY_mtQ/viewform?usp=sf_link
- To view our resources for outreach providers and teachers, visit https://www.envchemgroup.com/resources.html
- Activity sheets for children will be coming soon: Filter Funnel Engineering appears in this issue on page 15.
