STEM and Beyond? Informal Science Learning Across Disciplines

A Science in Public Research Network workshop

Friday 19th May 2017, Brunel University London: https://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/finding-us

Keynote speaker: Prof. Martin Bauer, London School of Economics (LSE)

This free one day workshop will develop dialogue on informal learning (i.e. that happening outside of teaching institutions), focusing upon STEM (science, technology, engineering and medicine) subjects, as well as SAH (social sciences, arts and humanities) subjects, and relationships between the two. It recognises the ‘STEM agenda’ as a political force that has shaped ideas and practices around informal learning and science communication over the past fifteen years. The workshop will focus upon successes and challenges, providing an opportunity to critically reflect on the STEM agenda and its impacts. By taking seriously the role of science communication in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and their relationships with STEM, the workshop will address a neglected area of research and provide a platform for developing and improving informal learning practice.

This event is free, but you must register on this page. Numbers are limited to 60, so please to reserve swiftly, but notify us if you subsequently cannot make it.

Please email neil.stephens@brunel.ac.uk (including STEM in the subject) is you have dietary or other requirements. Please also email neil.stephens@brunel.ac.uk (including STEM DINNER in the subject) if you want to attend the self-funded evening meal in the Uxbridge area. With it being a Friday we will need to book the table in advance.

The event is hosted in Brunel University London’s Lecture Centre, a grade II listed brutalist building in the centre of campus (pictured above). Registration and coffee are in LECT 107 with talks in LECT A.

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Provisional schedule:

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9.00 – REGISTRATION/COFFEE LECT 107

9.30 – Neil Stephens (Brunel U. London): Welcome. LECT A

STEM Communication

9.40 - Laura Fogg-Rogers (U. of the West of England): Curiosity connections – paired learning between engineers and teachers

10.00 - Mike Watts (Brunel U. London): Purposive curiosity: Adult 'self-engaged learning' in science

10.20 - Mhairi Stewart (U. of St Andrews) and Amy Hayward (Cell Block Science): Cellblock Science: The role of Public Engagement in integrating science education and informal science learning into Scottish prisons

10.40 - Ahmet Suerdem (LSE) and Soydan Soylu (Middlesex U): Potential of open social innovation for STEM teaching

11.00 - Erik Stengler (U. of the West of England): Relocating Inquiry Based Learning

11.20 – COFFEE LECT 107

Science communication & the arts LECT A

11.50 - Jo Cole and Mary Richards (Brunel U. London): Gangsters, Bosons and a femme fatale: The Elusive Ms Higgs project investigates

12.10 - Dvora Michelson (Brunel U. London): Science in Music

12.20 - Shane Mayack (Ligo Project): Science (as) Culture – a multidisciplinary highly participatory discussion format for community based scientific learning and doing

12.50 – LUNCH LECT 107

Science communication & the arts continued LECT A

13.50 - Jenni Rant (Saw Trust): Scientists, artists and writers at the SAW Trust

14.10 - Maria Afonso (U. of Liverpool): Print is back: how zines and science communication go well together

14.30 – Wendy Martin (Brunel U. London) and Katy Pilcher (Aston U.) Public Engagement and Visual Data: exploring the possibilities and limitations of developing photographic exhibitions

14.50 – COFFEE LECT 107

STEM, social science and interdisciplinarity LECT A

15.20 – Keynote lecture: Martin Bauer (LSE)

16.00 - Catharina Landstrom (U. of Oxford): Mutual learning in transdisciplinary Environmental Competency Groups

16.20 - Jamie Lewis (Cardiff U.) and Andrew Bartlett (U. of Sheffield): The locus of legitimate interpretation in [public] social science

16.40 - Hauke Riesch (Brunel U. London): “When I approach my subject I don’t see it as a science": The social science identity crisis and what it means for its place in STEM communication

17.00 - Closing discussion: STEM & Beyond

17.15 – COFFEE, NETWORKING LECT 107

18.00 – Close

18.45 – Self pay meal. Venue to be confirmed.

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The Lecture Centre is a very distinctive brutalist concrete building in the centre of the campus, opposite a grassed square. Both rooms used in the event - LECT 107 and LECT A – are on the first floor of the Lecture Centre. Upon entering the building please head right where you will see a stairwell and three lifts. Any will get you to the first floor where you will see LECT A, with LECT 107 around 15m down the corridor.

This event is supported by: Brunel University STS Research Cluster; Brunel Research Institute for Environment, Health and Wellbeing; the Science in Public Research Network; Brunel University College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences; Brunel INSPIRE science communication centre.