Authors

P Schneider¹; AJ O'Donnell¹; J Holland¹; SE Reece¹;  ¹ University of Edinburgh, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, UK

Discussion

Public engagement can be amazing! We get to talk about our work, about the cool job we do every day and we get exposed to a different view on the science questions we try to tackle.

In the last 2 years, the Reece Lab turned the idea of going on a science road trip into reality. We took >1000 primary school pupils and their teachers on an adventure to learn about our research.

We’ve translated our work on malaria parasites, their hosts and vectors, and their biological rhythms into a learning program for primary schools across Scotland, and associated teacher-training. We’ve travelled around Scotland with a tropical mosquito colony in the back of the car, met the most amazing people, were reminded of how cool being a scientist actually is, and were asked the most interesting and unexpected questions.

Along the way, we learned a lot about designing public engagement, how to improve it, and how to make it sustainable within our research. We’ll be sharing some of our experiences with you during the public engagement workshop on Thursday, but please come see our poster too!