6 Tips For Online Science Outreach With Children
Authors: Joana Moscoso and Sara Marques
Doing science outreach activities for children in an online format can be challenging for both scientists and pupils. There are a number of situations that may not be easy to control or manage. For instance, children might make noise, get distracted, seem agitated or, on the contrary, appear uninterested and silent — and having an adult assisting the child on the day of the event may not always be possible. Or you may experience technical issues or not be able to get the name of the children to address them properly.
When preparing for an online science outreach experience with children, acknowledge and accept the difficulties and focus on providing a well-prepared, fun and engaging experience. These are our 6 tips to help you achieve that:
1. Show your face and share how you feel
Be mindful of where the camera and light are in relation to your face. You’ll look better if the camera is slightly higher than your forehead rather than lower than your nose. You’ll also look sharper if there is plenty of light in the room. Check here for tips on how to look your best on video calls. Tell your audience if it is your first time talking to children online about your work or if you do not have a lot of experience in doing outreach with children. Feel free to share that you have spent some time preparing for the day and that while you are a bit nervous, you hope that they will like it. Explicitly ask them to help you, reassuring them you’ll do the same.
2. Define your main message and set that as the main goal
Having a main message and clear overarching goal is essential for your outreach experience as it will help you assess if the workshop met its big goal. We tend to prefer a realistic overarching goal and a focus on the quality of the materials or exercises we provide rather than in the quantity of information we give. Finding the right balance can be tricky, but will become easier with practice and it will also vary with the format of the outreach event you are organizing or participating. At Native Scientist workshops, the duration of each outreach interaction is usually 15 minutes and pupils are typically grouped by age and ages can range from 6 to 16 years old. An example of a good main message is: “Many good bacteria live in our gut”. In this case, the scientist would be able to assess if they achieved their main goal if, at the end of the workshop, when asking children “What have you learned today?”, they get the reply “Today I learned that we have many bacteria in the gut and this is good for us.”
3. Plan for interaction and flexibility
Think about the questions you want to ask and define simple topics and activities that don’t require the use of special resources (unless, of course, you are able to provide those and have the ability to communicate readily and effectively with the children’s parents or guardian). Let the students explore the content rather than spending too much time on theoretical explanations or demonstrations. Use simple games, flashcards, role-play, rhymes, or short drawing/writing/describing/guessing activities. Try to give different types of input to cater for different learning styles. This input may involve reading short sentences, watching a short video, answering questions (speaking or writing), listening to a music or sound, or moving to understand a phenomenon or give yes/no answers. To accommodate different levels of guidance/materials/support at home, provide open-ended questions and activities. Remember that knowledge should be built by the learners themselves and you can provide the tools for them to play an active role in the learning process.
Importantly, don’t forget to speak slowly and clearly and give enough time for children to process the information and react. Don’t be intimidated by silence and repeat questions or key information as often as necessary. Repetition is good to consolidate learnings. If confronted with silence or apparent disinterest, do not assume immediately that the activity is not working but rather be prepared to be flexible and move on if the group is not able to follow or if the content is too advanced.
Finally, we prefer to work with a small number of children and we also recommend that students are encouraged to interact with each other.
4. Give clear instructions to your audience
Be mindful of the children’s age, cultural identity, and language proficiency. Communicate with clarity, using short sentences and no jargon. When giving instructions, explain what is expected of the children and add examples of what they need to do. If possible, show a slide with the easy-to-follow steps of the activity. Also, have it clear in your mind what the keywords of your activity are and also, if possible, show a slide with that keyword and a representative image. To support pupils with speaking please find more information here. Simplicity is key!
5. Use visual input for support
To connect to your audience, present appealing images that relate to your work and/or to the child’s universe. Use photographs, animated gifs, emojis, icons and graphics to complement whatever text you may use. When using text, make sure your font is simple and visible, and use colour to improve readability.
6. Be ready
Key to communicating your message is preparation. Have all files and materials at hand, switch off the phone and other distractions, close tabs and windows that are not necessary. If you are showing a video or playing a sound/music, make sure you know how to do it. Connect using a good and stable internet connection.
You’re set to have a fun and effective online outreach experience!
About Native Scientist: Native Scientist is an award-winning European-wide non-profit organisation that promotes cultural diversity in science, education and society. Native Scientist provides science and language workshops, science communication training, and bespoke projects for various institutions, including schools, universities and embassies. The work developed connects pupils with scientists to foster science and language literacy through role modelling and science and language integrated learning. Founded in 2013, their work reaches over 1,200 pupils a year and they count with a network of over 1,000 international scientists.
