STEAM- Making Sense of Science through Art

Project Information

STEAM

Grant agreement ID: 722929

DOI

10.3030/722929

Project closed

EC signature date 27 April 2016

Start date 1 May 2016

End date 30 November 2017

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 364 912,25

EU contribution

€ 160 000,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - STEAM (STEAM- Making Sense of Science through Art)

Reporting period: 2017-02-01 to 2017-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

STEAM will adopt a novel multidisciplinary approach which utilities the medium of art and creative disciplines to
communicate complex STEM concepts to a wide audience.
The University of Huddersfield will be the primary site for the STEAM events which will showcase the research ongoing at
universities and businesses across the Yorkshire Region, emphasizing specifically the pan-European research with which
we are involved. STEAM will create a platform for public interaction through an exciting array of events, fun activities and
presentations, where researchers from numerous and diverse disciplines will engage directly.
The aim will be to engage with the general public, to illustrate to them the diversity, importance, and impact that this research
has on everyday lives, and specifically young people to familiarize them with researchers in person to demystify any
misconceptions they may hold and provide strong career role models.
Two events are proposed (2016 and 2017) with the STEAM theme running across the two years, developments in research
in 2017 will be emphasized to reflect the rapidly evolving nature of science.
The project has reached its objectives and proved to be successful.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Work Package 1 2017
Conception, production ad display of promotional material: programmes handed out on the day of the event to groups of attendees, distributed to each school within the University, churches, libraries, shops, art galleries and museums, flyers distributed along with the posters- to the University Schools, museums, primary schools and other locations around the Huddersfield area;
o Public advertising : posters for billboards around the University campus- seen by external and internal people, pavement stickers: located in various areas around the campus (see Appendix C), vinyl banner outside the train station, in Huddersfield town centre (Throughout September);
o Constant updating of the Facebook page: University of Huddersfield Facebook page: 38.000 followers ;
o Reach: 29.000 people, 1.600 page views, 270 responses;
o Constant updating of Twitter profile: 40.000 followers;
o Shared posts from the University of Huddersfield Twitter page (40,000 followers). “UOHInternational” and “WeLoveResearch” shared posts (combined amount of twitter followers around 4,000)
o YouTube:
o Creation of 2 promotional vimages using footage from the 2016 event to attract visitors, shared through other social media channels;
o Follow-up vimage after the event, with combined viewing figures of around 330 people;
o About 325,260 people made aware of the European Researchers' Night and its objectives.

Work Package 2 2017
Offer of the majority of activities as planned in the Annex I Part B to the Grant agreement. Where planned activities could not take place due to staff unavailability, these were replaced with activities of a similar theme. This reduced the overall activity costs due to some of the replacement activities requiring less consumables to run.
o Hands-on experiments;
o Demonstrations;
o Simulations;
o Science shows;
o Games, competitions (photography competition), contests;
o Exhibitions, presentation of prototypes;
o Quizzes (microscopy quiz);
o Guided tours, lab visits;
o European corner;
o Active involvement of 57 research staff, of whom:
o 15 having benefitted from EU support (FP 7, HORIZON 2020);
o About 3.722 visitors having taken part in the activities offered.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Overall Impact of the Event 2017

Collection, analysis and processing of 832 feedbacks (including the questionnaire for young people);
o Main conclusions:
o Typology of post-event survey respondents/visitors: 81% female and 19% male, ranged in age from 16-60+ with a large proportion of visitors on the night being 5-18 years of age, 5% of visitors travelled over 40 miles to attend the event;
o Overall positive feedback related to the events themselves (activities, interest, contacts with researchers, locations and venues, scheduling, concrete organisation) (over 90% rated as excellent or very good);
o 100 % responders intended to recommend the event and 93% would attend again;
o Positive appreciation of researchers available: 95 % stated that staff and researchers working on the event were friendly and helpful;
o Increased interest for science careers: 80 % responders;
o Increased understanding on the role of researchers and academics in society for 91 % responders;
o Science relevance to daily lives for 83% responders; based on 1,456 visitors who responded to token poll;
o Possible improvements with a view to future similar events:
o Recruitment drive for staff volunteers early on in the planning process (increased number of staff available to act as guides in some of the more isolated areas of the campus);
o Improved signage (still some locations difficult to find despite improvement compared to 2016);.
o Greater variety of catering options to appeal to more visitors;
o Grouping activities by time available, instead of location, so that visitors can see at a glance on arrival, which workshops are running;
o Improved online booking system;
o Earlier start for school groups ;
Quotes
o “It widened my girls understanding of chemistry and experiments in a lab, they both attend Junior school and a Bunsen burner is a rare sight!”
o “It was even better than we expected, we love it- please do it again.”
o “I liked that there were different activities for different ages and the opportunity to take part in things they wouldn’t have access to anywhere else.”
o “A fun and educational family evening, especially to show a 10 year old what a University is like and what fun science and arts can be.”
o “It inspired my children to get jobs in engineering”
o “My child of 10 was impressed and it gave her food for thought for the future”

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