Evaluation report
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Science of Surgery 2019 On Friday 12 April 2019 the Wellcome / EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences (WEISS) welcomed 300 members of the public to Science of Surgery over four hours (12:00 – 4:00). The public open day explored how science and technology at WEISS is contributing to modern surgery with the public and families in our Camden borough, with three aims to: 1. Raise local awareness and understanding of WEISS research amongst the local community through an engaging and interactive public showcase. 2. Provide a rewarding opportunity for WEISS researchers to develop public engagement skills, building enthusiasm and interest. 3. Build relationships with local groups and organisations as a platform for further conversations and collaborations. Planning began in December 2018, with eight project leads designated to support the development of seventeen different activities across nine groups. On the day these were delivered by over 50 members of the centre, including colleagues in the Division of Surgery. Aimed at families, the activities were designed to be fun, interactive and informative demonstrations of research concepts, allowing an accessible entry point, with researchers then pitching content based on who they were talking to.
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The public perspective
The staff perspective
Key aim: To raise local awareness and understanding of WEISS research amongst the local public through an engaging and interactive public showcase.
Key aim: To provide a rewarding opportunity for WEISS researchers to develop public engagement skills, building enthusiasm and interest.
Over 300 people visited Science of Surgery over a packed four hours, with almost 50% of respondents living in Camden and neighbouring boroughs, with the highest concentration of visitors being from Camden and Harringay.
The activities were developed with the help of eight public engagement leads in each of the WEISS platform projects, who led the development of activities in their teams across five months.
Feedback in person and through questionnaires was overwhelmingly positive, with 94% of respondents saying they’d attend Science of Surgery in future (6% unsure; 0% wouldn’t). Qualitative feedback focussed on the fun and interactive nature of activities, quality and enthusiasm of presenters and content’s direct relevance to practice.
The teams had the opportunity for a dry run of their activities at an internal event, providing a fun and informal chance to practice and showcase activities amongst colleagues in the building and UCL public engagement professionals.
The most common answer when asked what could be improved was the size of the building, which shows the popularity of the event and is something we will consider in planning for next year.
Anecdotal feedback from members involved and the activity leads has been very positive, with a selection of direct quotes below. One of activities developed is also being used for a journal paper on how software development can be used for training and education and another has directly contributed to a Masters degree project.
“I enjoyed everything! It was very interesting to learn about the various research areas, new equipment and the people working to improve our health and so many areas!”
“I really enjoyed the event, especially talking with the little kids. Their enthusiasm and curiosity reminded me why I chose engineering in the first place, and motivated me to complete my work.”
“Really enjoyed learning about how science and technology come together. All the stalls were very hands on and popular with my 11-year-old. Well done for putting on such a great exhibition.”
“We didn’t only inspire the children but I think they also inspired us and gave us motivation and positive energy to do our research. Thank you so much for organising this event! I will definitely join the team again next year.” “The most interesting and challenging part was discussing/changing the explanations for young kids/elder siblings and parents” “The enthusiasm of the visitors on the day was really rewarding. It was fun talking to people who were so interested in our work”
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5 months’ planning 4 hours 300 visitors 50 staff members 17 activities 6
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Community engagement
Activity leads
Key aim: To build relationships with local groups and organisations as a platform for further conversations and collaborations.
The activities were managed by a designated lead from each WEISS platform project, who were responsible for organising the development and creation of activities between their team members.
Through Science of Surgery WEISS reached out to a wide range of local community organisations, groups and schools. This involved emails, drop-ins and delivering presentations and activities, as well as face-to-face meetings with five local organisations for the first time, discussing follow-up activity with these since the event ended. Through these networks Science of Surgery reached beyond university channels, with visitors hearing about the event through a variety of local organisations including local schools, careers advisors, Age UK Camden and Fitzrovia Community Centre.
The group of PhD students and Research Associates met together monthly to share progress and ideas. They also received advice and support from the WEISS Public Engagement Coordinator, as well as specialist training from a freelance provider, Dan Plane. • • • • •
Mirko Bonfanti Richard Caulfield Richard Colchester Claudia D’Ettorre Emmanouil Dimitrakakis
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Gaia Franzetti Nooshin Ghavami Nam Huynh Maria Robu Thanh Trung Mai
As well as being responsible for leading activity development, the leads contributed to the planning and shape of Science of Surgery, including an evaluation session afterwards to develop suggestions for immediate next steps and Science of Surgery 2020 based on their experience. “I learned more about how to project manage a team, as well as about the other research groups at WEISS and what they do.” “I developed a lot of skills around management and a lot for future public engagement” “It really brought the group together and made a nice fun team atmosphere” “Even the most complex science can be explained so that kids understand it”
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“I enjoyed thinking and developing an activity that would be fun and instructive at the same time”
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Evaluation and feedback On the day we featured an evaluation station where visitors could complete a questionnaire or peg up less structured comment slips. We also asked them to indicate where they live on a large borough map of London. Children were given an evaluation passport to answer, collecting unique stickers at the stall in which they were able to answer the three questions, returning these for a small prize. We conducted a full debrief session with staff activity leads, with interviews and blog posts from a selection of people involved in the day and a celebration event to congratulate staff, inviting further feedback.
Future plans This event marked the first of an intended annual series, with each building on the previous iteration and an ongoing programme of public engagement activity between. The 2020 Science of Surgery will incorporate new activity and work more closely with community representatives to ensure we deliver an event with and for our local community. We are always interested in new collaborations and participators so please get in touch at weiss-publicengagement@ucl.ac.uk with any questions and ideas.
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www.ucl.ac.uk/weiss
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