Mhade Shreeya, Kadam Snehal, Kaushik Karishma S
Department of Biotechnology, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, Maharashtra, India.
Hull-York Medical School, University of Hull, Hull, United Kingdom.
J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2023 Apr 17;24(2). doi: 10.1128/jmbe.00046-23. eCollection 2023 Aug.
Science outreach programs that enable real-time interactions between scientists and school-aged children are known to positively impact learning gains and students' perceptions of scientists. To expand K-12 outreach by scientists, it is important to build structured outreach programs which offer scientists well-defined opportunities, while providing school students regular and diverse interactions. We describe Talk To A Scientist, a science outreach platform in India, where scientists use a webinar-based approach to share their research with K-12 students (6 to 16 years). Running weekly for nearly 3 years, Talk To A Scientist has hosted over 100 live interactions, with a wide reach to participants across the country. Here, we outline the framework used to build Talk To A Scientist and discuss key gains, considerations, and challenges in the development of the program. We also suggest potential adaptations with which this framework can serve as a guideline for the implementation of similar K-12 outreach programs across diverse country- and context-specific settings.
让科学家与学龄儿童进行实时互动的科学推广项目，已知对学习成果以及学生对科学家的看法有积极影响。为了扩大科学家在K-12阶段的推广活动，建立结构化的推广项目很重要，这些项目要为科学家提供明确的机会，同时为在校学生提供定期且多样的互动。我们介绍印度的一个科学推广平台“与科学家对话”，在这个平台上，科学家采用网络研讨会的方式与K-12学生（6至16岁）分享他们的研究。“与科学家对话”每周运行近三年，举办了100多次现场互动，广泛覆盖了全国各地的参与者。在此，我们概述构建“与科学家对话”所使用的框架，并讨论该项目开发中的主要成果、注意事项和挑战。我们还提出了一些潜在的调整建议，通过这些建议，该框架可以作为在不同国家和特定背景下实施类似K-12推广项目的指导方针。
