Public Engagement Training
Developed by
Thinktank
Birmingham Science Museum
Contents
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Why is public engagement a good thing?
Thinking about audiences
Thinking about learning
The National Curriculum
Facilitating audiences
Evaluation
Making it easier for yourself
Assessing risk
External resources
Public engagement
(PE)
• PE takes many different forms – there is
something for everyone!
• PE potentially has beneficial outcomes for
everyone concerned
• PE does not have to be hard work, scary
or a distraction from your day job
Why me?
• PE enhances communication skills
• You will be able to communicate more clearly with your
peers, students, other disciplines and funding bodies
• You will build your confidence in talking about your work and
seeing the bigger picture – this is particularly true of early
career professionals
• PE can enhance your career
• You will raise the profile of your research and organisation
• It might ‘tick that box’ during promotional reviews
• Encourage cross-disciplinary interactions and possible new
research ideas
• May give you a new perspective on your own work
Context
• PE has been developing over many years
as a key facet of UK research
• From Faraday’s public lectures in 1799 to
the present day, the role of science in
society is part of UK Governance
Context
• The results of a 2008 consultation, by BIS,
confirmed the following challenges:
• Make sure that STEM education in schools is exciting,
demanding and of a high quality
• Recognising and rewarding those who take part in PE
• Improving equality and diversity within the STEM
workforce
• Improving public confidence in STEM research and its
applications
Context
• Make science more relevant by making more
people excited by and engaged in science
• Encourage the media and scientists to work
closely together on new science programming
• Support teachers by encouraging closer working
with scientists and researchers
• Encourage more young people to study STEM
(and related) subjects
• Ensure science careers are available to all
Context
• The HE STEM programme will help you
contribute towards these aims
• By taking part in, and embracing PE, you
will play your part in the future of UK
science
• It will help you develop important personal
and professional skills and increase your
career profile
Audiences
• There is no such thing as ‘the public’
• There are lots of different ‘publics’, each
with their own needs, experiences and
expectations e.g families, adults, early
years, primary schools
• PE is much easier and more successful if
you always consider the needs of your
audience from the start
Schools
• Varying ages and topics of study
• Schools want:
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Learning linked to the curricula
Inspiration for students and teachers
Something they cannot do in school
A hassle-free experience
• Teachers’ needs
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Few have had time to prepare as much as they would like
Parent helpers are often unsure of their role
Teachers need to extend learning back into the classroom
Teachers don’t like people without CRB checks
interacting with their children
– no CRB, no visit to a school!
Families
• Varying ages of children and adults
• Families want:
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Fun and learning
A shared experience; something for all ages
Interactive experiences
Unique experiences
• Family needs:
• The needs of the adult are almost completely secondary to
the needs of the children
• Different ages of children have very different needs within a
family
• Parents both enhance and hinder their child’s learning!
Adults
• Want a relaxing experience
• Often don’t like children!
• Enjoy learning for pleasure
• Hungry for information, but in an
interesting format
• Nostalgia can be very appealing
• Most have a general – not specialist interest
Learning
• When you think about learning, consider a
broader description than factual uptake
• Is the audience learning any new skills?
• Is the audience going to change their behaviour
(e.g. start recycling)
• Is the audience being inspired or shown a possible
role model?
• Is the audience going to be challenging their
attitudes, values or opinions?
• Will the audience have a greater understanding or
awareness of a certain topic or issue?
Barriers to learning
• As well as the different categories of ‘publics’,
there is also huge variation within each category
– everyone is unique!
• People are disengaged for a reason
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Financial barriers
Cultural barriers
Language barriers
Intellectual barriers
Sensory barriers
Digital barriers
Social barriers
Barriers to learning
• By being aware of these barriers and
considering them in your activities, you will
make yourself more open to a wider
audience
• For example:
– 1 in 5 adults in the UK has literacy issues
• Reading based activities might not be appropriate
– Many schools have large numbers of children
with English as a second language
• Verbal activities might not be appropriate
Barriers to learning
• Find out as much as you can about your
audience beforehand
• If a school, talk to the teacher
• If an adult interest group, talk to the organiser
• Questions to consider asking:
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What do they want to learn about?
What are they expecting to get out of the activity?
What level of understanding are they coming with?
What are they going to do with this experience afterwards?
Why are they doing this activity?
Are there any disabilities or learning impairments you should
know about?
• Are there any language or cultural issues?
National Curriculum
• Schools glossary
• State/ Maintained schools
» Funded by the Government
» 90% of secondary school age children attend state
schools
• Specialist schools
» Any secondary state school can apply to be
designated a specialist school in one of ten areas
e.g. engineering, science
» These schools still need to deliver the full National
Curriculum requirements, but have proven
skills in their specialism
National Curriculum
• Schools glossary
• Special schools
» Provided by local authorities to cater for some
children with Special Educational Needs (SEN)
although most are educated in state schools
• Trust schools
» Government funded but receive additional support
from an external source e.g. charity, business
• Independent schools
» Funded mostly by fees paid by parents and
investments
» Do not have to have follow the National
Curriculum but must maintain standards
National Curriculum
• Schools glossary
• Academies and City Technology Colleges
» Independent schools but are publicly funded
• Further education (FE)
» Education establishments that cater for students over
the age of 16
National Curriculum
• The NC sets out the knowledge and skills
that children should have
• It is up to schools and teachers how the
teaching is delivered
Key Stages
• Primary schools
– KS1
– KS2
Yrs 1 & 2
Yrs 3 – 6
Age 5 - 7
Age 7 - 11
• Secondary schools
– KS3
– KS4
Yrs 7 – 9
Yrs 10 & 11
Age 11 – 14
Age 14 – 16
• These apply to England and Wales only,
Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own
school structures
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For more information see www.stemnet.org.uk
NC and Engineering
• Engineering is not a core curriculum subject
• Engineering is available to study as a diploma
• Engineers can support other core curriculum
subjects such as maths, science, design and
technology
NC and Engineering
• Don’t worry about learning the various parts of
the NC
• The most important part of your activity is the
fact that you are there with the school group
• The most useful thing you can do is talk and
plan with the teacher beforehand – this will help
you far more than studying the NC
• Do not underestimate how difficult it can be to
contact a teacher – start planning early!
Facilitating audiences
• Facilitators are people who help events
along and encourage/ promote
interactions and try to make sure the day
is a success
• As well as being an ‘expert’, you will often
have to play this role of facilitator as well –
usually at the same time
• Here are some things to consider:
Things to consider
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Rules
Types of questioning
Body language
Personal Stance
Environments
Facilitating audiences
Rules
• Depending on the format of activity you are involved
with, setting communal ground rules can be very useful
• Ask the group to write their own and get everyone to
agree to them before putting them up on the wall
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If you need to go to the toilet, just go?
Put your hands up before speaking?
No mobiles phones?
Only one person talks at a time?
• This can be very helpful in group settings but not so
much in more informal, drop-in settings
Questioning
• There are many types of question, but two broad
categories are Open and Closed
• Open
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Tend to require reflection
Give you opinions and feelings
Hand control of the conversation to the respondent
Can be used to open up the discussion
• Closed
• Can be answered with yes, no or a fact
• Can help to summarise and draw conclusions as well
as assess background knowledge
Body Language
• Body language is critical to engaging with
people
• In general terms, it can also be Open or Closed
• Open
• Be still, make eye contact, lean forwards, smile, nod head,
don’t cross arms or legs – generally friendly behaviour!
• Closed
• Avert glance, arms crossed, turning away – generally
unwelcoming behaviour!
• Think about what your body language says to
other people and about what theirs is saying to
you
Personal stance
• As facilitator, you need to decide what role
you are going to play within the activity
• You might be a local, friendly engineer
being the expert for the day, but you might
also be asked about things that are
outside of your comfort zone
• How do you want to be seen by the
audience?
Personal stance
• Stated commitment – you state what your role and
viewpoint is at the start and then contribute accordingly
• Devil’s advocate – in order to keep discussion going
(or get it started), you might present opposing viewpoints
to everything else that is contributed
• Neutral – you may not present a viewpoint at any time
• Balanced – you might present multiple viewpoints for
each issue raised to balance the discussion
• You might want to need to change your stance
as the activity progresses
Environments
• The environment that you create for your activity has a
massive impact on the success of the activity
• In broad terms, we think of three types of environment
• Physical
• Social
• Intellectual
Physical Environment
• Accept that sometimes you just have to work with what
you have, but always try to make it work for you
• Is there somewhere for coats and bags?
• Are there toilets?
• Are there appropriate seats?
• Are the lights and acoustics appropriate?
• Are the resources available appropriate to your planned
activity?
• Is it warm/ cool enough?
• Are you facing the audience like a lecture, or working in
small groups?
Social Environment
• Does the audience need to interact between
themselves?
• Have the audience met each other before? Does this
matter?
• Would ice breaker activities help build relationships?
• What is the social dynamic of the audience and how can
you make that work for you?
Intellectual environment
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Are there mixed levels of knowledge in the audience?
You might need to establish a minimum background
Lower levels might feel excluded, unwilling to participate
Higher levels might not engage at all
Is knowledge important for your activity or does it
depend on other learning outcomes such as skills
development?
• Does the physical environment reflect this?
Facilitating audiences
• Different audiences have different needs
and in your role as facilitator, you will need
to change how you interact with people
accordingly
• Whilst there are no golden rules
(everyone is unique), the following should
serve as handy hints to keep in the back of
your mind
General considerations
• Try to read people’s body language – not everyone
wants to talk to an engineer, whilst others might really
want to but are too shy to approach – can you spot the
difference?
• What reasons are your audience with you for?
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They were forced into it? E.g. school visit
Special celebration? E.g. family birthday trip
Something to keep the children busy?
Wanting to learn?
• If you can understand these reasons, it will help you
determine the social dynamic, who you talk to and how
• Think of your opening line
• Ahoy there, do you want to learn some engineering?
– Not recommended!
General considerations
• Try to imagine what your audience might
be thinking
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Why is this person talking to me?
What have I done wrong?
Who is this person?
What are they going to try and sell me?
Why does this always happen to me?
General considerations
• Choose your language carefully
• Jargon and technical terms are not necessarily the bad thing that
many people claim
• Is there a reason why you are using that term rather than something
else?
• Is it obvious what that term means?
• If not, can you explain it without breaking up the flow of the
interaction?
• This is the difference between ‘dumbing down’ and
‘being clear’
• Your aim is to communicate clearly
• Too much technical jargon will lose audiences, whilst
none at all can be perceived as patronising
• With each new interaction, you have to try and gauge what
level the audience is at already – background knowledge!
Working with
audiences
• Children
• If you are working with a group of children (e.g. a school), the adults
present are in charge of discipline and behaviour – work with them
and get them involved
• Never underestimate what prior knowledge a child may bring to the
discussion
• Don’t patronise children – they spot this a mile away!
• Let them see your natural passion and enthusiasm for your subject
• Shouting rarely works
• Listen to them, don’t fob them off, be honest with them
• One of the most meaningful things you can say to a child is ‘I don’t
know’
Working with
audiences
• Young Children
• If you encourage/ allow children to shout out answers rather than
put their hands up, you will probably make your own life very difficult
• It is OK to ask children their names and can put them at ease
• Talk to the teacher about how you should be addressed – you might
be happy with first names but the teacher might not
• Always accept a child’s answer and thank them for it – don’t say
“no, you are wrong!”
Working with
audiences
• Older Children/ Young adults
• Don’t try to be cool, just be yourself
• Teenagers can be very shy and don’t like to be ’picked on’.
Anything where they risk being humiliated in front of their peers
without consent is unlikely to work
• Have a sense of humour, but don’t force jokes. Don’t join in with
any teasing of pupils
• If you can stay after an activity session so that pupils can have
access to you, one-to-one, that can be really helpful for them
• Let them see you as a person; someone who is passionate and
enthusiastic about their work
Working with
audiences
• Families
• Try and read body language
» who wants to join in and who doesn’t
» what is the group dynamic?
» what are they thinking? They won’t always know who you are or
why you are talking to them – what body language are you
displaying?
• Pay attention to all family members, not just the children or adults
• Encourage them to interact between themselves – maybe promote
the children teaching the adults?
• Suggest ways in which they could carry on the activity or discussion
at home
• Hands-on activities that involve all family members work really well
• Allow all family members to see each other in a new light –
demonstrate skills or knowledge that were previously hidden; you
are building relationships as well as bridges!
• Listen to them
» An open mind and a willingness to listen and share ideas
can lead to very powerful learning experiences
Working with
audiences
• Adults
• Encourage them to share what they know/ feel/ believe and think
with you – listen to them
• Be open minded about what you can learn from them
• Try and make your work relevant to their lives
• Remember – to have a meaningful interaction with someone does
not mean that you have to be talking about engineering
Evaluation
Ask yourself the following questions
1. What do you want to find out?
2. How is that going to help you?
3. How are you going to find this out & from
whom?
4. How much time, money, staff do you have?
5. How are you going to report the results?
Evaluation
• Once you have answered these questions, you
can plan what to do
• The following are common (but not the only)
ways of evaluating
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Questionnaires
Interviews
Observations
Surveys
• A small amount of good quality evaluation is
more important than a large amount of useless
data
Evaluation
• Make sure you take time to reflect on your
own experiences
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Did you find it enjoyable/ useful/ worthwhile? Why?
Would you do it again?
Would you do anything differently in the future?
What advice would you give someone else?
How might you tailor the activity for a different
audience?
• Did anything unexpected happen?
• Do you think it was successful? Why?
Making it easier
• Don’t reinvent the wheel – lots of people already do PE, ask
them for help/ advice
• Talk to your Widening Participation Office, PE Co-ordinators
(even if within a different Department)
• There are already lots of resources and activities already
developed; you don’t need to create something new!
• Plan ahead – leaving things to the last minute leads to stress!
• Develop your activity based on the needs of your audience(s)
• If an activity has more than one ‘big idea’, it is probably more
than one activity
• If you are working in or with a school, be nice to the
Receptionist, Caretaker and Technician – they are your ticket
to success!
• Try and get someone else to do it with you
• This will support you practically and morally!
People who can help
• HEIs often have various people and offices
who may be able to help you
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Widening Participation
PR, marketing, media
Public engagement personnel
Schools liaison officers (e.g. University of Birmingham,
Maths and Physics Departments)
• Consider external support as well
• Research Councils
• Learned societies
What if it all goes wrong?
• Facilities or equipment:
– We have all done this at some point! Either you have
forgotten or broken something in transit, or you have
expected something to be there that isn’t. Advance
planning can prevent the latter, but if you forget something,
use common sense.
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Do you have time to go and get a replacement?
Can someone bring you what you need in time?
Can you borrow something from a local friend?
Can you change the activity such that you don’t need it
anymore?
• Can you improvise an alternative?
• Can you deliver that section of the activity in a
different way such that you don’t need the equipment?
What if it all goes wrong?
• Audience:
– Sometimes the audience just isn’t reacting as
you expected. They might be of a different
demographic to what you expected, or
behaviour might be an issue
• Different audience – can you tailor your original activity
to meet the needs of your new audience – speak to the
organiser!
• Poor behaviour – talk to the organiser/ teacher. You
are not there to maintain discipline
What if it all goes wrong?
• Logistics:
– You suddenly discover that your 2 hour
workshop only has 30 minutes. Or vice versa
• What is the most important part of the workshop?
Can this be the focus of the time that you have?
• Can you start something which the audience can
continue another time on their own?
• Can you make parts of the workshop more open
ended so that there is more time for discussion?
These types of activity always take longer.
What if it all goes wrong?
• It is just not working:
– For whatever reason, the activity is just not working and
everything is going horribly wrong!
– Don’t panic!
– In most situations, the most important part of your activity is the
fact that you ‘the professional’ have taken time to engage with the
audience. That is often more important than the details of the
activity.
– Try and work out where the problem is, talk to the teachers/
organisers for advice. Can you salvage something from the
activity?
– Can you change the tempo, nature of the activity to
meet the learning needs of the audience?
– Battling on through an activity that is not working
rarely benefits anyone – including you!
– Go back to the essence of why you are doing the activity.
Can you still do this, but another way, even if you have to
improvise as you go along?
Making it easier
• Register as a STEM Ambassador
• The voluntary STEM Ambassadors program is
designed to support you in your PE
• It is free and provides you with CRB checks,
insurance, support and guidance for your
registered activities with school children
• Being a STEM Ambassador will make it much
easier for you to fulfil your public engagement
needs!
Assessing Risk
• You must do a risk assessment before you deliver any activity and
share this with your host (if appropriate)
• Think about all of the people involved and what they might do – this
is subtly different to what you want them to do
• Have a ‘can-do’ attitude but manage the risks in a sensible way
• Talk to your H&S co-ordinator if you need help
• Be careful taking pictures of your activities. It is a good thing to do
in order to evidence your activity, but make sure you have signed
permission from parents before using or even taking photos
• You should also have insurance
• If you are a registered STEM Ambassador, this already exists as long as
your activity is registered
• Imagine taking expensive resources from your place of work
and your car being stolen – it happens!
Activities
• Royal Academy of Engineering
• Engineering Engagement project
» Role model / stereotype / career activities
» Plastics, pylons, smart materials, electronics
• Institute of Physics
• Resources for the Classroom
• Public engagement resources
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Engineering Interact (online)
Discover Engineering
Expedition workshed (online)
More Maths Grads in a Box
STEM Networking
HE STEM Programme