This is an extract from the 2022 FLEET annual report [read the full report online] See previous section (Collaboration) / see next (Communication)
FLEET’s outreach activities improve public awareness of FLEET research and scientific literacy among school students. FLEET members get a greater appreciation of their audience’s interests, understanding and values, and learn how to effectively communicate with them.
FLEET shares the responsibility to increase the participation of students in science, and to increase the number of girls and women participating in physics, chemistry and engineering. FLEET focuses significant efforts on science outreach, with the aim of:
- Increasing the participation of students in science and physics
- Increasing understanding, passion and appreciation for science in the general public
- Improving the outreach skills of FLEET members
- Facilitating public discussion of FLEET-specific research.
FLEET outreach in 2022: key data
FLEET has an innovative and ambitious approach to outreach, with all FLEET members (from PhD student to director) required to do at least 20 hours of outreach each year. Members value outreach, seeing it as excellent training in science communications and a competitive advantage for their CVs.
FLEET’s outreach program also develops members’ transferable skills, as they hone their pitch and communication skills on students or the public and later apply the same skills in conversations with future collaborators or decision-makers.
FLEET will:
- Promote science literacy in schools
- Improve public awareness of quantum science, electronics and sustainable computing.
RESTARTING FACE-TO-FACE OUTREACH
After two years of severely-limited public outreach, 2022 saw FLEET hit the ground running, getting back out at public events and schools.
FLEET conducted a series of workshops with primary and lower secondary schools in Melbourne and regional Victoria, with positive impacts on students’ scientific literacy and critical thinking about FLEET research.
Early evaluation of a new Centre workshop introducing primary students to novel quantum physics content suggests primary students can learn and conceptualise quantum physics. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time this quantum physics has been
introduced to Australian primary students.
FLEET got back to face-to-face teaching of its Future Electronics unit with the John Monash Science School. This unit continues to have a positive impact on students’ understanding of the breadth and depth of the physics discipline, their consideration of physics as a career or subject to pursue at higher levels, and female students’ greater awareness of women in physics, and thus a possible physics career for themselves.
FLEET members got involved in CSIRO’s STEM Professionals in Schools program and worked with teachers in remote and regional schools to conduct workshops, develop lesson plans and talk to students about their own journeys towards a career in physics.
FLEET also participated in the Indigenous-focused Deadly Science program, chatting to students in remote and Indigenous communities about FLEET research and what is happening in their school and community.
Many members of the general public were reached in 2022 through two substantial public events: Melbourne Knowledge Week and the Sydney Science Trail.
Evaluation at each activity indicated we successfully increased public awareness of FLEET research, and helped people think critically about FLEET’s research problem and society’s use of digital technologies.
The new FLEET Schools web resource – which aims to improve teacher and student access to FLEET’s teacher- and student-based resources – saw an increase in usage. We saw significant jumps in visitation to upgraded home science activities that were re-developed for use in the classroom. FLEET.org.au/schools remains the ‘go to’ page of all FLEET outreach resources to schools.
FLEET’s ‘Ask the physicists’ Facebook page (introduced in 2021) continues as a platform to engage the primary and secondary education community, now reaching 182 followers. The focus of the page has shifted away from answering questions about physics towards being a platform to inform and update our audience on what FLEET outreach is doing, promote any new FLEET teacher or student resources and notify followers of relevant physics education news.
2022 OUTREACH HIGHLIGHTS
- Developing and testing new evaluation methods to rigorously assess the impact of outreach activities
- Confirming via evaluation FLEET’s positive impact on student scientific literacy and critical thinking about research
- Successfully taking quantum physics into primary schools, showing that primary students can learn and conceptualise quantum physics
- Increasing public awareness of FLEET research, and understanding about society’s use of digital technology, at major public events
- Broadening students’ understanding of the breadth and depth of the physics discipline and giving female students a greater sense of a possible future career in physics.
IN 2023 FLEET WILL
- Take the JMSS Future Electronics unit in whole or part to one other school
- Continue participating in the CSIRO STEM Professional in School program
- Co-develop at least one student workshop with Monash Tech School
- Complete FLEET’s third teacher resource and continue to refine and update the content of the other resources
- Continue developing and refining methods to rigorously evaluate the impact of FLEET outreach.
School students.
OUTREACH WITH IMPACT: EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF FLEET’S OUTREACH ACTIVITIES
FLEET’s public and schools outreach activities seek to promote public awareness and understanding of FLEET science, and raise awareness and understanding of FLEET (and adjacent) areas of research among students and teachers.
But how do we know if we are achieving our objective? What impact are we achieving on awareness and scientific literacy in our target audiences?
Evaluation is built into FLEET outreach: each outreach event is designed from the outset to allow evaluation, assessment and measurement against Centre goals.
2022 was the first year that we had the opportunity to rigorously evaluate FLEET’s primary and secondary school workshops. Analysis of pre- and post-training evaluation data shows that our workshops, across all the year levels we engaged with, positively affected student scientific literacy and their ability to think critically about FLEET research and society’s use of digital technology.
FLEET will make its outreach impact evaluation methodology available to other Centres of Excellence as part of the Centre’s intention that its legacy includes improving the operation of all COEs.
Major evaluation projects in 2022 assessed outreach activities Melbourne Knowledge Week, Sydney Science Fair, Hughesdale Primary School and regional schools as well as the new pilot quantum primary schools unit.