BU Research Blog

March 2, 2017

Public Engagement Opportunity at the Poole Maritime Festival!

Knowledge Exchange, Public engagement, Student Engagement Joanna Pawlik

It’s that time of year where The Festival of Learning is heading back on-tour and taking BU’s research out to some exciting locations. One of our stops this year includes the Poole Maritime Festival on Saturday 20^th May.

Whatever stage you’re at in your research career, academic or PhD, we’re looking for participants to display and promote their research at the festival. This could be through table-top activities, posters, interactive displays – we’re open to ideas! It would be fantastic if your activities fitted into the theme of maritime heritage and environment but if your research isn’t directly related, we’d still love for you to get involved.

We’re expecting lots of interested members of the public with Poole Harbour Boat Show and the Seven Seas Festival forming part of Poole Maritime Festival’s exciting programme. The Boat Show alone attracted over 15,000 people in 2015! The Festival is linked with European Maritime Day, originally created in 2008 to give Europe’s community of maritime professionals a forum to meet, exchange knowledge and forge partnerships. It is a unique opportunity to promote Poole, local businesses and Bournemouth University’s research to an international audience!

If you’d like to get involved, need some idea inspiration or for any more information, drop me an email jpawlik@bournemouth.ac.uk. If you can’t get involved this year, still make sure that you head down to the Maritime Festival this year, taking place from the 15^th-21^st May.

February 24, 2017

Festival of Learning on-tour at RNLI College Food and Drink Festival: get involved!

Festival of Learning, Knowledge Exchange, Public engagement, Student Engagement Joanna Pawlik

Are you interested in getting to know the local community, and sharing your research and expertise with others? Do you have exciting research to talk about or would you like to gain some valuable experience in public engagement?

Join us in a lead up to Festival of Learning and be part of RNLI College Food and Drink Festival on 30^th April! The festival is focused on great quality food, sourced and produced here in Dorset, and supports Mayday campaign, which is a nationwide community fundraising campaign.

There is a community theme to the Festival so we’re looking for activities that may be of interest to the local community or are around community based research. We’d also be keen to take along any food and drink related activities about. However, if your activity is not directly related then we’d still love to hear from you. Please drop me an email on jpawlik@bournemouth.ac.uk to express your interest in joining us and I will be able to provide you with more details.

We’re also looking for activities for Poole Maritime Festival and are looking forward to hearing from you! To find out more please click here.

February 13, 2017

Festival of Learning on-tour at Poole Maritime Festival: get involved!

Public engagement Joanna Pawlik

Festival of Learning on-tour is taking BU’s research and expertise to some exciting locations this year so if you are interested in engaging with the public look no further!

The Poole Maritime Festival will run from 15 – 21 May this year, and Festival of Learning on-tour will join the festivities on Saturday 20 May at Baiter Park in Poole. We’re expecting lots of interested members of the public with Poole Harbour Boat Show and the Seven Seas Festival forming part of Poole Maritime Festival’s exciting programme. The Boat Show alone attracted over 15,000 people in 2015!

The Festival is linked with European Maritime Day, originally created in 2008 to give Europe’s community of maritime professionals a forum to meet, exchange knowledge and forge partnerships. It is a unique opportunity to promote Poole, local businesses and Bournemouth University’s research to an international audience!

We are looking for public engagement activities that fit into the theme of maritime heritage and environment, but if your activity is not directly related we’d still love for you to be involved. You can express your interest in running an activity by dropping me an email on jpawlik@gbournemouth.ac.uk and I will be able to provide you with more details and help you develop your activity.

May 5, 2015

Are you interested in joining the public engagement team in Poole town centre on 30th May?

Public engagement gibsonh

With the Festival of Learning two months away, our On-Tour programmes are well underway. In May of this year we have an opportunity for you to get involved in running a public engagement activity for the general public.

What are the benefits from being involved in the Festival of Learning on tour?

Running an activity as part of the on-tour programme will enable anyone who’s new to public engagement to gain confidence in communicating research to the public, as well as providing a fresh perspective on research from audience members with differing levels of knowledge and understanding. Most of all … it will be great fun!

What kind of activity could I run?

In the past we have had very successful activities which have engaged the public and created a great atmosphere when taking the Festival of Learning On-Tour. The first example is an activity run by Marine Archaeology, who brought artefacts and wrecks from their dives; this included full size cannon (which was very popular with the younger generation). A second example is painting fossils as an activity; this had a great appeal to families as the activity provided a hands-on experience. We also encourage Post Graduate students to run activities around their research, an example of this was an activity which looked into our DNA and provided a quiz to test what participants had learnt.

If you are interested in running an activity, please email Harry Gibson, who will be able to provide you with more information on what will be required for the day and help you develop your activity.

April 17, 2015

Call for public engagement activities – the Festival of Learning On-Tour 2015.

Festival of Learning, Public engagement gibsonh

Are you interested in joining the public engagement team in Poole town centre on 30^th May or alternatively Bournemouth town centre on 13^th July?

With the Festival of Learning less than three months away, our On-Tour programme is well underway. In May and June of this year we have opportunities for you to get involved in running a public engagement activity for the general public.

What are the benefits from being involved in the Festival of Learning on tour?

Running an activity as part of the on-tour programme will enable anyone who’s new to public engagement to gain confidence in communicating your research to the public, as well as providing a fresh perspective on your research from audience members with differing levels of knowledge and understanding. Most of all though… it will be great fun!

What kind of activity could I run ?

In the past we have had very successful activities which have engaged the public and created a great atmosphere when taking the Festival of Learning On-Tour. The first example is an activity run by Marine Archaeology, who brought artefacts and wrecks from their dives; this included a full size cannon (which was very popular with the younger generation). A second example is painting fossils as an activity, this had a great appeal to families as the activity provided a hands-on experience which can represented in the picture to the right. We also encourage Post Graduate students to run activities around their research, an example of this was an activity which looked into our DNA and provided a quiz to test what participants had learnt.

If you are interested in running an activity, please email Harry Gibson, who will be able to provide you with more information on what will be required for the days and help you develop your activity.

December 18, 2014

Festival of Learning on Tour and Professor Puzzles!

Festival of Learning, Public engagement ssquelch

Last Thursday and Saturday 11^th and 13^th December, Festival of Learning on Tour went to Bournemouth’s Christmas market to showcase some fantastic research activities, based on the work of BU’s academics. The response from members of the public was extremely positive and many seemed keen to attend future events at the 2015 Festival of Learning (11-17 July)

Some of the activities showcased to the members of the public included James Gavin’s Exercise Science at Home, involving a handgrip strength task which tested upper body strength and the sit and stand test which tested lower body strength. Dr Kevin McGhee senior lecturer in Health Sciences was also there with PHD student Rosa-Spencer Tansley to talk to people about the basics of DNA.

Researcher Tom Cousins and PHD student Orestes Manousos brought along some artefacts from marine archaeology dives, carried out to find artefacts of wrecks from WW1 and WW2 which included a cannon!

While these amazing research activities were a great way to engage members of the public with the Festival of Learning, there was also some time for a very special friend of ours to make an appearance, yes, wait for it………….Professor Puzzles, the Festival of Learning’s best friend made an appearance at the Christmas markets and absolutely wowed members of the public with some of his smooth dance moves and gave them photos which they will remember for a long time. We have decided to spoil you by uploading some of the photos from Professor Puzzles walk around the Christmas markets below.

With the huge success of the Christmas markets, the Festival of Learning on Tour will return again in the summer, for more details about this, email Naomi Kay on nkay@bournemouth.ac.uk

Don’t forget that the deadline to submit an event for the Festival of Learning 2015 is 12 noon on Friday 19^th December, fast approaching, so don’t miss out on the opportunity to be a part of the Festival, click here if you would like to submit an event.

Professor Puzzles at the market!

Professor Puzzles showing of some smooth moves!

November 25, 2014

Want to share your research with the public? Festival of Learning On Tour – Bournemouth Christmas Market

Public engagement Naomi Kay

Many of you have been involved in BU’s summer public engagement road show that’s been to places near and far, including our own town centre, Christchurch Food Festival, and further afield to Bestival, and Glastonbury. This year we’re taking our Festival of Learning stand to the Christmas Market for some festive fun!

From the 11^th – 13^th December you’ll find the public engagement team down in the Triangle supporting a range of our academic staff as they deliver activities for the public to enjoy. So far we have activities planned looking at DNA, microscopic organisms, fitness activities in the home, as well as some quick and easy psychological tests. We’d like to support as many of you as possible to share your research with the public so if you’re interested in being involved get in touch!

We’ll be running the stand 11.30am – 8pm each day and can support activities that want to run for all of that time, or if you just want to spend a few hours with us. It can be a great opportunity to trial your plans for the Festival of Learning in July and see how the public react to your research.

We’re open to ideas for activities from academics, PGRs and students. Anything interactive and eye-catching is a bonus – and don’t worry it doesn’t have to be Christmas themed! (We do of course support the wearing of Christmas jumpers, Santa hats and Reindeer antlers if that’s your style!)

If you’re interested in engaging students with your research then we are also running a series of “Science Stands” in Poole House Atrium on the 4th and 9th December. Please get in touch with Sam Squelch our Student Engagement Coordinator for further details on how to be involved.

August 14, 2014

Ever wanted to take your research on tour? Here’s your chance to be involved!

Festival of Learning, Public engagement bsquires

Continuing on from the success of the Festival of Learning this summer, the public engagement team at BU have been very busy planning several more public engagement initiatives for the Festival of Learning on Tour.

Towards the end of June, Dr Julia Best and PhD student Jacqueline Pitt ventured to Glastonbury festival in order to convey the research of the Chicken Project (Cultural and Scientific Perceptions of Human-Chicken Interactions) to a large and varied audience. Armed with several skeletons, an assortment of archaeological finds and a large number of interactive timelines, maps and charts, the team set up a stand in the Science Tent within the Green Future’s field. The activities and information were very well received with around 800 visitor interactions taking place, usually lasting between 5-10 minutes. Read more at: http://www.sciculture.ac.uk/rise-with-the-crow-ahrc-public-engagement-at-glastonbury-festival/.

Julia commented on the weekend saying “Thank you for letting us be part of this experience. It was an amazing festival to be involved with and such a diverse audience to talk to! I’ve always enjoyed doing outreach work at festivals and Glastonbury is about as good as they get. It was great for us to be part of the Science Tent and to be able to show our research in a new light. If I had a pound for every time a visitor said to me something along the lines of “oh cool, I didn’t know you could do/tell/see/find that” I’d be rich”.

Last weekend in collaboration with the STEM Outreach team, the public engagement team attended the three-day family orientated Camp Bestival at Lulworth Castle where they ran three hands on activities. The team engaged more than 3500 children and parents in the science tent. Several of the activities run included a partnership with the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site education team.

In September the team hope to take several engagement activities to Bestival and are now looking at planning further ‘on tour’ activities all the way up to Christmas – so if you know of any interesting events that the Festival of Learning on Tour could attend, or would like to contribute an activity, please get in touch with a member of the team who will happily discuss your ideas and support delivery further.

The Festival of Learning on Tour offers a unique way for academics and PGR’s at BU to engage the public with your research and develop lateral connections outside the classroom. A recently posted article in the Guardian discusses the increasing alignment between engaging with the public and research and how it’s no time to build up this presence in public debate: http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2014/jul/21/10-ways-make-public-engagement-work-for-you

Develop your potential, tap into a community of wider peers, and build up a presence about your research this Autumn with the Festival of Learning on Tour!

Barry Squires – bquires@bournemouth.ac.uk

Naomi Kay – nkay@bournemouth.ac.uk

Tagged / Festival of Learning on Tour

Public Engagement Opportunity at the Poole Maritime Festival!

Festival of Learning on-tour at RNLI College Food and Drink Festival: get involved!

Festival of Learning on-tour at Poole Maritime Festival: get involved!

Are you interested in joining the public engagement team in Poole town centre on 30th May?

Call for public engagement activities – the Festival of Learning On-Tour 2015.

Festival of Learning on Tour and Professor Puzzles!

Want to share your research with the public? Festival of Learning On Tour – Bournemouth Christmas Market

Ever wanted to take your research on tour? Here’s your chance to be involved!

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