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.
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
A valiant team effort brought labs to life for European Researcher’s Night
Public Engagement intern Samir Morsli reflects on his experiences in Peterborough and Cambridge during LifeLab, part of European Researchers’ Night 2018
30/11/2018
Science in the Square
The Babraham Institute researchers and animal care facility staff travelled to Cathedral Square, Peterborough, in September to engage the public as part of LifeLab. Esther, Public Engagement Officer, shares her experiences of public engagement in the square!
29/10/2018
Inspiration in Immunology
Isby visited the Institute for Schools’ Day and took part in a project to investigate white blood cells in a mouse model. As she starts her degree in Biochemistry at Durham University she looks back on her experience in our labs.
16/10/2018
A fish out of water: How a zebrafish researcher is discovering public engagement
Public Engagement intern Samir Morsli tells us about his research, his expectations for his three-month placement at the Babraham Institute, and how it complements his PhD at The University of Sheffield.
04/10/2018
How do we create additional value for research?
Co-creation in action! Emma, Public Engagement Officer, summarises the latest ORION open experiment at the Euroscience Open Forum in Toulouse.
26/09/2018
LifeLab is coming to town
Since 2016 ‘European Researcher’s Night’ has been hosted in countries throughout Europe. For 2018 and 2019, Cambridgeshire will have its own night called LifeLab. The Institute is one of the founding organisations – read on to find out how to get involved.
21/09/2018
PhD Students Rise to the LaunchPad Challenge
PhD students Izzy Hampson and Carolyn Rogers describe how they joined forces to create a new project for secondary school students
11/09/2018