Our community reaches out
Our outreach strategy has helped us shape our activities in different ways
Magda van Leeuwen, Royal Society of Chemistry
A year ago we first told you about our new outreach strategy and our plans to grow, empower and support a diverse and engaged Royal Society of Chemistry outreach community. During the last 12 months, we have started to put in place the recommendations and goals outlined in our strategy, while continuing to organise, host and take part in a large variety of outreach activities.
When we talk about outreach, we talk about the many different ways in which we can engage an audience with the chemical sciences. This is not something new. Our employees and our members are already actively involved in many different outreach activities, ranging from hands-on activities for school children to demonstrating the impact of the chemical sciences to the public. So our new strategy did not mean lots of new or different activities. Instead, we will focus on three key audiences: school children, the public and our outreach advocates. In providing those doing outreach with the necessary guidance and support, we want to help our community as a whole to reach even wider audiences.
What’s happened so far?
With these goals in mind, we have put in place a dedicated outreach team to deliver and support programmes of activities that will raise people’s engagement with the chemical sciences. Over the course of the year, we have successfully launched all three tiers – small, medium and large – of the outreach fund, which means we now have the means to support our members and our wider community with new and innovate outreach projects that respond to local needs.
We also reviewed the way in which we use chemical landmarks to engage with the public. As a result we have added a stronger emphasis on public visibility, asking our members to find ways in which landmarks can be made more accessible to non-chemists. And we are currently in the process of reviewing both our schools-focussed outreach activities and competitions to make sure they align more strongly with our strategy and vision.
Supporting our advocates
In addition to looking at how we can most effectively engage, inspire and enthuse school children and the general public, a key aspect of our strategy focuses on those people who share their passion for chemistry with others. Many of these advocates are you, our members. Your passion, experience and diversity make you the ideal role models to engage with different audiences and to illustrate the relevance of chemistry in the context of everyday life.
In the past, our members have been involved in many of our outreach activities, and the last twelve months were no different. Just a few examples from 2014 include employees and members delivering hands-on practical activities to school groups and families at the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham, RSC Fellow Peter Wothers presenting his Modern Alchemist Tour across the UK, members presenting public lectures at Burlington House on a wide range of topics, and our member networks arranging hundreds of events and outreach activities all across the world.
Partnering with others
In line with our outreach strategy, we also invested in increasing the number of core programmes and opportunities for our members in 2015. By partnering with organisations that share our vision for greater impact through outreach, we are able to increase the breadth and depth of activities we are involved in and, at the same time, enhance the representation of chemistry within existing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) outreach activities.
One example of such a partnership is our growing relationship with STEMNET. This has enabled us to improve our STEM Ambassador programme, which provides national opportunities for chemists to engage with outreach locally.
Throughout the last year, we have also become more involved with activities like the online science communication competition I’m a scientist … get me out of here! and have encouraged members of our community to take part. The competition sees school students judge scientists’ communication skills on different topics ranging from water and energy to drug discovery. Next year, we are sponsoring nine topic zones, hoping to engage even more students with chemistry and offering our advocates the opportunity to hone their science communication skills in an online environment.
With the aim of offering our members and others in the chemical science community more opportunities to get involved in outreach and develop their skills in communicating chemistry to lay audiences, we also sponsor FameLab. Asking scientists to present their work in an entertaining but scientifically accurate way in under three minutes, the competition heats attract scientists from all fields.
Looking ahead
We want to continue to develop ways our community can get involved in outreach activities. In addition, we are looking to provide networking opportunities and a chance to share best practice through to providing easy opportunities for first time engagement through to supporting our most active advocates to develop their own ideas.
We will continue to fund your own outreach ideas through our outreach fund. And we are looking at ways to provide training for members who are interested in developing their outreach and communications skills and to provide community support – whether online or at a regional level – to reward and recognise the fabulous work you already do.
