Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FOOD IQ (FOOD IQ. Eat out knowledge on European Researchers? Night 2021)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-05-01 bis 2022-02-28
We all know that it’s healthier to prepare regular meals with fresh produce and plenty of vegetables, fruit and whole grains than to live off daily takeaways of chips or pizza, but it isn’t always easy to go for the healthy option. And you’re not completely in control of that either. Where you live, who you share meals with, what you can afford, your stress level, and what happens to be on offer all play a role in what and how much you put on your plate.
The goal of the European Researchers’ Night 2021 in Groningen was to bring together scientists of various disciplines and other inhabitants of the Northern Netherlands around the subject of food. Besides having a fun day, we wanted to raise awareness of the influence of our living environment on our food choices, to inform and empower both children and adults. At the same time, we wanted to contribute to the public understanding, recognition and appraisal of researchers and their work. And the scientists would learn more about the daily life challenges and effects on maintaining a balanced diet, by taking the opportunity to interact with the public. This contributes to the quality of the science.
The goals of FoodIQ are in line with the mission of Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health: contribute to more healthy years in and beyond our region, by having more impact with science on public health. In a large part of the world, our average lifespan is growing, but the number of healthy years is not. The amount of elderly people with complex chronic disease is rising, while the workforce in health care is shrinking. If we want to limit health problems and suffering and we want to keep our health system reliable, affordable and accessible, we have to do something. And we can. At least half of chronical diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes are preventable by having a healthy lifestyle. During the European Researchers’ Night – and also in the pre and post events and in all our other public engagement activities – we wanted to inform, entertain, surprise, and empower people to be the director over their own health.
The goal of the European Researchers’ Night 2021 in Groningen was to bring together scientists of various disciplines and other inhabitants of the Northern Netherlands around the subject of food. Besides having a fun day, we wanted to raise awareness of the influence of our living environment on our food choices, to inform and empower both children and adults. At the same time, we wanted to contribute to the public understanding, recognition and appraisal of researchers and their work. And the scientists would learn more about the daily life challenges and effects on maintaining a balanced diet, by taking the opportunity to interact with the public. This contributes to the quality of the science.
The goals of FoodIQ are in line with the mission of Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health: contribute to more healthy years in and beyond our region, by having more impact with science on public health. In a large part of the world, our average lifespan is growing, but the number of healthy years is not. The amount of elderly people with complex chronic disease is rising, while the workforce in health care is shrinking. If we want to limit health problems and suffering and we want to keep our health system reliable, affordable and accessible, we have to do something. And we can. At least half of chronical diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes are preventable by having a healthy lifestyle. During the European Researchers’ Night – and also in the pre and post events and in all our other public engagement activities – we wanted to inform, entertain, surprise, and empower people to be the director over their own health.
In the project FoodIQ we developed the following:
An awareness campaign – promoting the events of the European Researchers’ Night. Because of Covid-19 there were crowd restrictions during the Night, so we did not focus our campaign on attracting many visitors. But we did raise awareness on the European Researchers’ Night, its goals and the content of our program through messages online, but also offline, in community centres, on the cover of our regional newspaper (over 100.000 readers), on our local television, in the classrooms and in many more places.
An education program – In our education program academics went to 19 primary schools for 38 interactive lessons, teaching approximately 570 children between the age of 7 and 12 years old about food and also about the science of it. There were four different workshops. By bringing researchers closer to the children we increased their awareness of research, creating an understanding of the impact of researchers’ work on their daily life and to encourage the pupils to embark on research careersThe impact analysis of
the education program indicated positive views in terms of the design of the activities as well as in terms of the impact on children’s engagement and interest.
Two shows: 'Aletta’s Kitchen - The Greatest Groninger Food Quiz' and 'Aletta’s Kitchen - The Greatest Groninger Food Quiz junior edition' – Both shows involved a fun quiz, built together with researchers, food professionals, nutritionists, target group, and artists which allowed participating teams and the audience to discover striking scientific findings about healthy food and the role of science in our daily lives.
The morning show (10:00 - 11:00) was a very lively quiz for an audience of 100 children from 7-12 and was also live streamed in about 40 classes. School teams from Reitdiep, Paddepoel, and Zuidhorn had the opportunity to get involved in science on food and interact with the scientists. The teams' classmates in the audience were supporting and advising the teams present on the stage.
The evening show (20:00 - 21:00) for adults was built as a TV show, filmed by local Groningen OOG TV. Three very diverse neighbourhood teams of de Wijert, Paddepoel, and Vinkhuizen competed against each other in this fun quiz where knowledge or education background did not play a role. There was a lot of interaction between the contestants and the scientists, also after the show. The show was broadcasted on OOG TV on several occassions during the following weekend.
Interactive exhibit – An interactive installation was developed by scientists, students, an exhibit designer and the target group. The exhibit existed of a title panel, a fast super market game, a video, an interactive map of food habits in the region, a set table with food from past, present and future and a snack wall with views on sugar tax. It was in a very public spot in the Forum Groningen for two weeks, where many people of different ages and background interacted with it. By observing 337 of those visitors, it was seen that visitors spent 5 to 15 minutes interacting with the exhibit, all in their own way, and they found the exhibit innovative, interesting and fun. The exhibit is designed to travel to all corners of the region and beyond, to reach as many people as we can, especially those who do not usually interact with science. After the project FoodIQ the exhibit has been in five schools, a health centre and a library and is still travelling to some big national festivals, small local festivals, schools, libraries, community centres and more.
An awareness campaign – promoting the events of the European Researchers’ Night. Because of Covid-19 there were crowd restrictions during the Night, so we did not focus our campaign on attracting many visitors. But we did raise awareness on the European Researchers’ Night, its goals and the content of our program through messages online, but also offline, in community centres, on the cover of our regional newspaper (over 100.000 readers), on our local television, in the classrooms and in many more places.
An education program – In our education program academics went to 19 primary schools for 38 interactive lessons, teaching approximately 570 children between the age of 7 and 12 years old about food and also about the science of it. There were four different workshops. By bringing researchers closer to the children we increased their awareness of research, creating an understanding of the impact of researchers’ work on their daily life and to encourage the pupils to embark on research careersThe impact analysis of
the education program indicated positive views in terms of the design of the activities as well as in terms of the impact on children’s engagement and interest.
Two shows: 'Aletta’s Kitchen - The Greatest Groninger Food Quiz' and 'Aletta’s Kitchen - The Greatest Groninger Food Quiz junior edition' – Both shows involved a fun quiz, built together with researchers, food professionals, nutritionists, target group, and artists which allowed participating teams and the audience to discover striking scientific findings about healthy food and the role of science in our daily lives.
The morning show (10:00 - 11:00) was a very lively quiz for an audience of 100 children from 7-12 and was also live streamed in about 40 classes. School teams from Reitdiep, Paddepoel, and Zuidhorn had the opportunity to get involved in science on food and interact with the scientists. The teams' classmates in the audience were supporting and advising the teams present on the stage.
The evening show (20:00 - 21:00) for adults was built as a TV show, filmed by local Groningen OOG TV. Three very diverse neighbourhood teams of de Wijert, Paddepoel, and Vinkhuizen competed against each other in this fun quiz where knowledge or education background did not play a role. There was a lot of interaction between the contestants and the scientists, also after the show. The show was broadcasted on OOG TV on several occassions during the following weekend.
Interactive exhibit – An interactive installation was developed by scientists, students, an exhibit designer and the target group. The exhibit existed of a title panel, a fast super market game, a video, an interactive map of food habits in the region, a set table with food from past, present and future and a snack wall with views on sugar tax. It was in a very public spot in the Forum Groningen for two weeks, where many people of different ages and background interacted with it. By observing 337 of those visitors, it was seen that visitors spent 5 to 15 minutes interacting with the exhibit, all in their own way, and they found the exhibit innovative, interesting and fun. The exhibit is designed to travel to all corners of the region and beyond, to reach as many people as we can, especially those who do not usually interact with science. After the project FoodIQ the exhibit has been in five schools, a health centre and a library and is still travelling to some big national festivals, small local festivals, schools, libraries, community centres and more.
Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health want to empower people to be the director over their own health. Much research is performed on health-related topics; however, this information does not always reach the public. By organizing the Night and traveling around with the interactive exhibit, we want to connect researchers with citizens so they can learn from each other. This will impact the quality of the research and empower the general public on staying healthy. In the Night as well as in our other public engagement activities we focus on those with lower education and lower income, as this is the group with lower life expectancy (6 years) and shorter healthy life span (15 years). We aim to contribute to more healthy years for all.