The Scottish government has announced funding of £615,000 from its Science Engagement fund to be shared between 36 projects across Scotland. The grants are to encourage more people to engage with science and technology.
Making a difference
‘I am convinced that we must do things to try to engage the wider public with the science we do, so that they feel much more connected to it,’ Professor Anne Glover, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Scottish government, told Science & Public Affairs. ‘These projects can make a difference. Last year, with a spend of £285,000, we reached about 300,000 people with individual events. This year I’d like us to reach double that number, which would be over 10 per cent of the population.’
Public engagement
Simon Gage, Director of the Edinburgh International Science Festival, told SPA how some of the money will be spent: ‘We’ve received three main grants of about £30,000. One is to support the general running of the family programme of the Festival, Wonderama. It’s a wonderful venue, filled with great workshops and shows that about 1000 people a day go through. It includes things like unwrapping fake Egyptian mummies, digging up dinosaurs and building robots.
‘The other two grants apply to the outreach programme, the schools touring programme. It’s called Generation Science and is probably the biggest science touring programme in the UK. We have 18 teams who go on tour for about 6 months and 1,500 separate appearances to 64,000 primary school kids across the whole of Scotland. One grant is core to that, and the third is to develop a new product for that for 2009.’
A new curriculum
Changes to the Scottish educational system also aim to promote science engagement. The new Curriculum for Excellence wants all young people to become responsible citizens that are able to evaluate environmental, scientific and technological issues and to develop informed, ethical views of complex issues.
Kath Crawford, of Science and Plants for Schools Biotechnology Project (SAPS) Scotland and the Scottish Schools Equipment Research Centre (SSERC), provides support for school science staff through teacher training and the development of high quality resources. ‘The science curriculum [for pupils aged] 3-15 is changing dramatically,’ she explained.
‘The content is being reduced and the aim is to promote active learning and engagement of the pupils so that they can achieve deeper understanding,’ she went on. ‘The aim is to encourage a population that is scientifically literate as well as producing people who can go on to study science, so that the whole population has an appreciation of science and the contributions that it makes to society, well being and to economic growth.’
Dr Joanna Carpenter is the Shorts Editor