Present: Sara, Olof, Claire, Kirsty
1, Events. We discussed what we can do as events as we wait for MoSSFest and the Midlothian Science Festival to come around in the fall. We will meet the requirements for the BCS grant with these two events and if we succeed in getting an evening with the Maryhill Integration Network’s Family Nest group (meeting Wednesdays 5.30-7.30). We have emailed MIN but have been told that with Ramadan and Eid they have quite a busy schedule – they will get back to us in a couple of weeks to arrange something. Claire will arrange a MoSSFest Centre for Virus Research/ScienceGrrl Glasgow crossover and Amy and Imogen are our contacts for Midlothian. We have been asked to go to Bang Goes the Borders again. Isabel and JC went last year and said it was really good. Only concerns are volunteers – the event is on Sep 22nd, quite close to Midlothian and MoSSFest time-wise – and travel costs (though we have some money left in the budget for this).
For summer events we have had some interest from Summer in the City in Glasgow. It is a camp for children, based in Jordanhill on Wednesdays and Craigholme Sports Complex in the South side on Thursdays. Suggested dates & times are any Wed/Thurs between 4 July – 9 Aug, 10am – 12noon. Each session would be approx. 20 kids.
2, Genetics activities. Carla and Lara have finished their post card text about Barbara McClintock – this will be passed to Rhona for designing and printing. We discussed some activities that could go with this post card: with the money we have left over from the BCS grant (we can also ask for more funding from ScienceGrrl) we could buy taste strips – pieces of paper with different tastes on it that people can taste/not or that taste differently depending on your genes. The strips themselves are quite cheap and come with controls. There are PTC strips that taste either like nothing or bitterly, thiourea strips, sodium benzoate strips and these all come with controls. We’d need to supply sweeties and water to eliminate any bad tastes after the testing. Other materials could include booklets with genetics information and test recordings to take away, a poster to record results and display during the day and materials on how genes run in families and what the local gene pool for these tests look like.
3, STEM. We also discussed helpful courses (practical activities training, ambassador – teacher networking) available through STEMnet for all STEM ambassadors. Courses are on a platform called FutureLearn and they’re all available online for free if you sign up. STEM also has a set of Inspiration Awards and deadline to nominate is Sep 18th if anyone would be interested!
4, ScotPEN. The Scottish Public Engagement Network have an event on Tuesday June 19th at the Glasgow University Union from 4-6pm. It will be for networking with other PE enthusiasts/professionals and with funders. There will be a session where you can present activities etc and also surgery sessions with funders.
5, Cell Block Science. Kirsty kindly came along to present the initiative Cell Block Science to us. She is looking for communicators to set aside a day for going to a prison (Low Moss or Schotts) and bring activities/presentations about science. Anyone who would be more interested in this can contact Kirsty. She will be sending us the slides from her presentation for perusing at the next meeting as well. If anyone should be interested right now, the sessions run from Oct 16 – Dec 4 and Feb 12 – April 2. Transport will be covered by CBS, 1-2 demonstrators per session is requested, 6-12 learners of varied backgrounds would be their audience. Any resources must be checked for entry allowance with 2 weeks notice, presentations sent to Kirsty 3 days before event. NOTHING that can be connected to the internet will be allowed into the prisons. All tweets after the event(s) must be approved and can’t include pictures or names.