Hello Dom et al
Way back in the mists of time I did exactly what you describe as a project for my City and Guilds FE Teaching certificate. It ran for a couple of terms pretty successfully - in Blackpool - which is not a place similar to Oxford. I got the students to suggest the topics they wanted to cover, which meant that I had to do a fair bit of research in between sessions, but I liked to think that made it more democratic and participative. I am not exposing to psci com the name of the course as it was horribly twee and I'm sure our colleagues will guide you to an excellent non-patronising title.
Good luck with it!
Annette
-----Original Message-----
From: psci-com: on public engagement with science [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dominic McDonald
Sent: 02 December 2008 12:29
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PSCI-COM] Science for Beginners [and dinosaurs]
Hi all
Here at Science Oxford we are planning to start a strand of events in the spring which is aimed at people with little or no scientific training, to introduce them to basic scientific concepts. It's come out of evaluation which suggests that we sometimes struggle to find the right level for our audience, because some of the visitors to our events are (very smart) people with little or no academic training in science, and some are professional scientists (they are smart too, of course).
We'll be starting with Evolution (for Darwin Year) and then will go on to tackle topics like The Universe, The Brain, The Earth and so on. So big topics, and we would aim to give a very broad introduction to each in about an hour and a half. We would maybe run 6 of these a year, so we won't run out of subject matter in a hurry.
Has anybody done anything like this before? If so, who deliverede them? Did you get an audience? Was it a success? It's similar in concept to an evening class, but in Oxford there's not much scientific on offer except what's done by the University's (very splendid) Continuing Education Dept, (the County Council's evening classes do very little on science at all).
We're also trying to find a good title for the strand - maybe "The Basics of..." or "An ABC of..." ? Any suggestions would be very welcome.
Cheers
Dom
[ps this is the kind of conversation that I think this list is generally good at, i.e. sharing information rather than sharing opinions. Open discussion on email lists like this can lead people to be wary of putting their head above the parapet - opinions can be challenged in a way that "facts" can't, and so people are less likely to say what they "think" because they worry that they might find themselves branded an idiot. It's much less scary to say what you "know"... it's a shame, but I don't think there's anything you can do about it.]
Dom McDonald
Head of Public Engagement
Science Oxford
1-5 London Place
St Clements
Oxford OX4 1BD
tel: 01865 728953
fax: 01865 791854
www: scienceoxford.com
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