[Publicengagement] Fwd: Calling all Scientists, we need you!

[Paul Griffin]

Hi all,

please see below for information on Scientist Next Door, a new STEM program that is looking for scientists to engage with families.

The university email system mangles URLs in some idea of security, and Ben has helpfully provided plaintext versions. If there are any problems with links then that’s down to my tinkering, so please do let me know.

Griff

        **********************************************
        Dr. Paul F. Griffin
        Department of Physics
        University of Strathclyde
        Glasgow G4 0NG
           phone : 0141-548-5813
           email : paul.griffin at strath.ac.uk<mailto:paul.griffin at strath.ac.uk>
           web : http://photonics.phys.strath.ac.uk





Begin forwarded message:

From: Ben Hourahine <benjamin.hourahine at strath.ac.uk<mailto:benjamin.hourahine at strath.ac.uk>>
Subject: Fwd: Calling all Scientists, we need you!
Date: 15 June 2020 at 18:24:13 BST
To: Paul Griffin <paul.griffin at strath.ac.uk<mailto:paul.griffin at strath.ac.uk>>


Hi Griff,

Can you circulate to the outreach interested around the Dept?

Cheers

Ben

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:        Calling all Scientists, we need you!
Date:   Mon, 15 Jun 2020 16:01:03 +0000
From:   Elena, Alin Marin (STFC,DL,SC) <alin-marin.elena at STFC.AC.UK><mailto:alin-marin.elena at STFC.AC.UK>
Reply-To:       CCP5 members with email addresses in the UK <CCP5UK at LISTSERV.STFC.AC.UK><mailto:CCP5UK at LISTSERV.STFC.AC.UK>
To:     CCP5UK at LISTSERV.STFC.AC.UK<mailto:CCP5UK at LISTSERV.STFC.AC.UK>


Calling all Scientists, we need you!

In March COVID-19 lockdowns were present in 160+ countries, affecting 90%+ of the world's student population. The homeschooling and lockdowns have inevitably removed the opportunity for children to learn about STEM through activities and engagement with peers, thereby affecting their education.
While difficult, this has presented us with an opportunity to create a new community! The Scientist Next Door project is there to provide a platform to you, as scientists, to share your passion and help bring up the next generation of scientists.
We organize and host group video calls between scientists and children aged 4 - 18. The idea is we have 2~4 scientists with one family, discussing scientific topics the children are interested in, your research, and some live experiments to give them a unique perspective they won't find elsewhere. We talk about what inspires us and think about the science that impacts our daily lives. It can be a learning experience for parents too!

So far we've had over 45 calls supporting children of all age, covering topics from extracting DNA from strawberries and COVID-19 to why balloons fly and how solar panels work.

This is an open call to all scientists, from undergraduate to professor, to join in on the project and participate in calls. Time commitment is 30 mins ~ 1 hour a week max, where you'll need to be either involved with your calls or prepping some material. It is preferable (though not mandatory) if you have a valid DBS check or equivalent. This is also open to scientists outside the UK too, we currently have scientists based in Greece, Italy and more!

Please do pass this on to your colleagues too if you think they'll be interested, and if you know any parents (or indeed are one), please pass along our information!

If you're a parent and want to sign up or you just want to read more about the project, our website is here: https://www.scientist-next-door.org/

Here are some recent posts and news articles about what we've been up to:
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/18509360.scientists-help-children-learn-lockdown/
https://viralstories.co.uk/2020/05/20/scientists-bring-virtual-experiments-into-kids-homes-university-of-edinburgh-durham-university/
https://twitter.com/EdinburghUni/status/1263037203371917312?s=20

If you are interested in doing some volunteer work during the pandemic and beyond, this is a fantastic opportunity to do so while also talking about science! You can sign up by emailing outreach at scientist-next-door.org<mailto:outreach at scientist-next-door.org> using the subject header: "new scientist to sign up for SND". Please include a small photo of yourself, where you're based and a short paragraph about your research in layman's terms. You can see what other people have written on the website for inspiration.

Thank you!
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