Meet-up 15/3/2018

Present: Sara, Olof, Rhona, Carla, Lara, Bhoomi, Claire, Crystal

1, British Science Week @ Glasgow Science Centre. The first event of the year is upon us! We had a final practice session for our #UnsungHeroines Chromatography activity during the meeting, figured out the last kinks and made sure all materials were in place. We are now ready to take this show on the road thanks to generous funding by the Biochemical Society!

Please come join us Glaswegian ScienceGrrls tomorrow and on Sunday at the Glasgow Science Centre between 12-4 for the finale of British Science Week 2018.

2, 13th Cumbernauld Scouts. Our next scheduled event in the calendar is a collaboration with the University of Glasgow MRC Centre for Virus Research on March 29th (7.30pm – 9.30pm). The plan is to bring one or two activities (#UnsungHeroines and Molecular Mimicry) and run these as stands for the scouts to circulate to learn about global diseases like Malaria and ZIKA, to help them secure their Global Issues badge. Claire will arrange transport of materials and people from Glasgow.

3, Family STEM Night @ Oakgrove Primary School. This event will finish up our spring event calendar (as our attendance at the GUVMA Rodeo has been cancelled due to lack of volunteers). We will run our #UnsungHeroines activity as a classroom workshop for attending kids and parents at the annual Family STEM Night at Oakgrove Primary School on April 25th (5.30-7.30pm).

4, News! This We welcomed two new ScienceGrrl this meeting: Carla and Lara are third year Genetics undergrads at the University of Glasgow and very enthusiastic to get involved with public engagement. They’ll be helping Rhona finish the Barbara McClintock #UnsungHeroines postcard and are already putting their heads together to try and think of a cool genetics activity to add to our ScienceGrrl activity toolbox!

Bhoomi raised additional events ideas for 2018: Isle of Bute Science Festival, the Glasgow Mela and Explorathon. Also floated around was an events idea to promote ScienceGrrl Glasgow. Previously, ScienceGrrl members have walked around events with badges saying “Ask me”. Visitors were encouraged to ask members who they were and what they worked on and could fill in a bingo card during the event and get ScienceGrrl freebies for talking to as many ScienceGrrls as possible. This could be adapted to our #UnsungHeroines concept if members assumed the roles of our chosen heroines, perhaps by learning some background and having props to help present information about a particular heroine?

The next meeting will be Thursday April 12th, 6 pm in the Starbucks Byres Road conference room (upstairs). We’ll give feedback on our BSW and Scouts events and prep for the STEM family night. See you then!