Public Engagement Blog
Welcome to the Public Engagement Blog! This blog was created to allow Institute staff & students to share their stories and comments on public engagement events and activities as well as providing a space for our researchers to discuss scientific topics and about their life in the lab.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Babraham Institute.
From the Lab to Engagement
Say hello to Mike, our new adult and communities Public Engagement Officer. Here he talks about his career journey from working in a lab to sharing his love of science through public engagement.
02/11/2020
My journey to Babraham
Meet Fergus, our newest Public Engagement team member. In this introductory blog post, he gives us an insight into his career path so far, his passion for engagement, and some of the events we have to look forward to in the coming months.
06/10/2020
30 years of engaging memories
Schools Engagement Officer Mike Hinton looks back at his career in Public Engagement
24/02/2020
Schools’ Day 2020: Our scientists answer students’ questions (Part Three)
As part of our build-up to Schools’ Day 2020 we asked students to submit their questions to our researchers. This series of three blog posts answers the top four questions. Read on to learn about what motivated our researchers to follow a career in science, their perspectives on the importance of maths and computing skills and whether a degree in science is essential.
10/02/2020
Schools’ Day 2020: Our scientists answer students’ questions (Part Two)
As part of our build-up to Schools’ Day 2020 we asked students to submit their questions to our researchers. This series of three blog posts answers the top four questions. Read on to learn about what motivated our researchers to follow a career in science, their perspectives on the importance of maths and computing skills and whether a degree in science is essential.
10/02/2020
Schools’ Day 2020: Our scientists answer students’ questions (Part One)
As part of our build-up to Schools’ Day 2020 we asked students to submit their questions to our researchers. This series of three blog posts answers the top four questions. Read on to learn about what motivated our researchers to follow a career in science, their perspectives on the importance of maths and computing skills and whether a degree in science is essential.
10/02/2020
Our Sixth Form Summer of Science
Karan, Storme and Ania are enthusiastic A-Level students experienced life in our labs as Nuffield Placement students, discovering more about the exciting opportunities a research career can offer.
02/10/2019
Vaccines On Tour: Why Should We Care About Vaccination?
Steph Norwood, the Babraham Institute's ORION Project lead, explains the latest call for collaborators to co-create a museum exhibit on vaccination.
03/09/2019
Escape Room: A researcher's view of Public Engagement
Richard, a PhD student in the Cook lab, summarises why he feels we need to pause and re-think public engagement, elevating it from a nice side hobby to the critical essence of why we do research.
15/07/2019
Escape Room: The science behind the scenes
Piot Jung, a PhD Student in the Stephens/Hawkins group and Chiara Pantarelli, a PhD student in the Welch group, explained how their PhD projects helped them to develop their award-winning public engagement activity
12/07/2019
Escape Room: Project development
Elizabeth Hampson explains her part in the development of the Institute’s pop-up escape room and how her PhD research in the Welch group was a key to its success.
09/07/2019
Open Science: What’s It All About?
Our new public engagement officer, Stephanie Norwood, talks about what she’s learned in her first few weeks on the job and how you can get involved with the ORION Open Science project.
01/07/2019
STEM Insights teacher placements: Ensuring impact for science
In their third and final blog post, Helen and Mike describe the work of some of the teams who support the researchers in their work.
09/05/2019
STEM Insights teacher placements: Discovering animals in science
In the second of a series of three blog posts, STEM Insights placement teachers Helen and Mike discuss how the use of animals in research is considered.
09/05/2019
STEM Insights teacher placements: Getting hands-on with science
Teachers Helen and Mike spent a week in our labs and facilities on a STEM Insights placement week. In the first of a series of three posts they describe some of the research and techniques they discovered.
09/05/2019
Schools’ Day 25: The students’ perspective
Students from Colchester County High School for Girls who attended Schools’ Day in March describe their experiences in the Babraham Institute and campus company labs
18/04/2019
Schools' Day 25: From contribution to coordination
Michael Hinton reflects on his involvement with Schools’ Day and how it has changed since his time at the bench
04/03/2019
Schools' Day 25: Advances in research
In March, the Institute will play host to our 25th annual Schools’ Day, with 180 15-18 year olds from schools across the country attending to get some hands on experience in our labs and find out more about careers in science. Since 1995, Schools’ Day has been an Institute staple, but while that’s remained the same, so much else has changed.
26/02/2019
Schools' Day 25: Changes in science education
In response to this year being the 25th Annual Schools' Day at the Institute, our Public Engagement and Knowledge Exchange Manager, Hayley, explores the changes in science education over the last 25 years.
18/02/2019
From Education to Engagement
In her first blogpost, our new Public Engagement & Knowledge Exchange Manager, Hayley, says hello, talks about her decision to leave teaching and explores upcoming Babraham Institute events in 2019.
04/02/2019
My time as a Public Engagement intern at Babraham: Recommendations to prospective students
Samir Morsli describe his experiences at the Babraham Institute during his ‘Professional Internship for PhD Students’ (PIPS) internship
29/01/2019
Solving the orange cube challenge at Engage 2018
Dr. Emma Martinez-Sanchez, Public Engagement ORION Open Science Officer, took her co-creation project to the poster party at the NCCPE ‘Engage Conference’ and found surprise inspiration…
17/01/2019
New perspectives on challenge projects in the Netherlands
Elizabeth Hampson, a PhD student in the Welch research group, describes her visit to Sophianum School in the Netherlands.
14/01/2019
‘Competency through Challenge’ - schools’ partnerships to stimulate creativity and develop skills
Ahead of his workshop at the Association for Science Education Conference, Michael Hinton, Institute Public Engagement Officer, describes his experience of challenge-based learning projects
08/01/2019
Reflections on a great year of Public Engagement
As 2018 draws to a close, Knowledge Exchange and Public Engagement Manager Tacita Croucher looks back on our Public Engagement highlights this year and shares some of the things to look forward to in 2019.
21/12/2018