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We started off the meeting with a quick welcome before jumping into a game of human bingo in breakout rooms. This involved learning more about those on the call from if anyone was new to the network to if anyone speaks more than one language to if anyone cycles to work.

We then took some time to reflect on what everyone was hoping to get out of the session and the network more generally using the network padlet.

Lewis and Katie shared some updates on the Curiosity in Action programme including who the 5 partnerships are and an overview of the first in-person action research meeting with the group in November 2023.

Sophia Georgescu, who is currently doing a PhD and working with Children’s Parliament, gave a member spotlight talk on Children's Environmental Rights and Participation.

Using the suggestions made on the padlet at the start of the call, there were two breakout rooms for the group exploring:

Co-production with children and young people

Connecting University research to youth work programmes and practice

The call was wrapped up with a Community Notice Board giving those on the call a chance to share any events, resources or opportunities with the group.

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The impacts on the young people that the youth workers and researchers hope to see by the end of the programme.

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We’re delighted to share that the 5 partnerships for year 1 of the CiA programme are:

Ormlie Community Association working with Ruth McKay from the University of Aberdeen.

Multicultural Family Base working with Clara Pennock and Alison Young based at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.

Hearts of Midlothian FC Innovation Centre working with Jacob Allitt from Herriot-Watt University.

Paisley YMCA working with David Boldrin from the University of Glasgow.

Auchinleck Community Development Initiative working with Juliano Morimoto, Charles Wang and Sophie Laurie from the University of Aberdeen.

The programme's first action research (AR) meeting took place in November, discussing what outcomes and impacts of STEM on young people the youthworkers and researchers would like to explore. This was also a chance for the groups to get hands-on and test out various activities together that could be run with the young people. The next AR meeting will take place within the next two weeks to discuss how the partnerships have got on with the youth group sessions and what learning we can take from the programme so far. These AR meetings will form a big part of the evidence base of this programme.

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Sophia Georgescu from the Children's Parliament was our network member spotlight. She spoke about Children's Environmental Rights and Participation, and how to frame scientific topics from a children's human rights-  and a hope-based perspective, arguing children are more likely to engage with science, environmental issues, and the world when grounded in children's human rights. She explained that intergenerational equity and justice should come into STEM education.

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Curiosity In Action: Sophia Georgescu on Children's Environmental Rights & Participation

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Breakout Room 1: Co-production with young people

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Breakout Room 1: Co-production with young people

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There was a question around how to set up co-production programmes and not really knowing where to start or how to do it.

Two of the network members in this breakout who are part of the Curiosity in Action programme showed everyone a list that their young people had come up with on what they wanted to explore with a scientist.

There was also a discussion around the tensions of co-production with young people.

There was a wider question of whether funders favour bigger numbers which can’t be achieved through a co-production approach since it takes a lot of time.

One of the members in the group works for a funding body and shared that their organisation doesn’t work in that way and often it’s the opposite for them where they find themselves pushing back on really ambitious impact numbers due to this often being an oversight into how long that can take. They did acknowledge that they are aware not all funding bodies work in this way though.

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Breakout Room 2: Connecting research and youth work 

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Breakout Room 2: Connecting research and youth work 

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We discussed the challenges with recruiting researchers to youth work programmes, particularly around capacity and the time taken for relationship building between partners, planning and then delivery.

It was highlighted by one of the researchers in the discussion that with support and backing from supervisors/the research organisation this is manageable but not everyone gets this support.

We explored the benefits of being able to run longer term projects that establish trusting relationships between the young people and researchers and the challenge of doing one off drop in visits.

The conversation moved on to the importance of evidencing this work to be able to show the impact to project decision makers within organisations, both in youth groups and research institutions.

There was an interesting discussion on the importance of language used across disciplines, for example, the words research or creativity meaning different things to different disciplines/individuals. There was the suggestion for having a list of vocabulary and their intended meaning for partnership projects to keep everyone on the same page.

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These are the events and resources shared by network members:

YouthLink Scotland's Digital Youthwork Conference, aimed at youth workers using digital in their practice, 6th Feb, Glasgow.

Webinar on wild pedagogies and arts methods in STEM education at the Stirling Curriculum Studies Centre.

Edinburgh Science will be organising an exhibition called Consumed in Granton and Dundee, with climate leader training on how to support youth climate groups alongside this.

Our Beautiful Wild is a film about the nature crisis made by and for young people.

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In true Curiosity in Action fashion, we kicked off the call with a game of human bingo to give everyone the opportunity to get to know each other a bit better.

Everyone spent some time on our CoP padlet reflecting on what they are currently excited about, things they feel currently challenged by, and what they were hoping to get out of the Community of Practice session.

Lewis and Katie shared updates on how the partnerships involved in the Curiosity in Action programme are getting on. They also shared a preview of some resources being developed from the programme including a 'Back-Pocket Activities' resource with short activities suitable for youth group settings and a Key Performance Indicator to support evaluation of youth work projects.

Some of the network members on the call shared projects they have been involved in with the rest of the group.

Hilary Phillips shared her experiences of a digital game resource developed with young people and digital technologists last year 'Using Game Design in Youth Work Supports Digital Inclusion'.

Craig Macfarlane shared his current experience supporting pupils through the Young STEM leader programme and developing and delivering STEM activities with youth clubs in North Edinburgh, including a pilot project with the Spartans Community Foundation.

Amelia Doran, a PhD student at Northumbria University, shared the initial stage of her research looking at STEM education in science museums, digital tinkering activities and students' fears of failure.

Three key themes were picked out to discuss together in more depth on the call.

Failure in a youth work setting and how young people respond to it

How to go large and scale up projects

Sharing resources and equipment with youth groups

The call was rounded off by sharing the Curiosity in Communities Network survey to gather feedback on what has been and what would be useful from the network space.

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As we approach the end of the Curiosity in Action programme we are developing resources and toolkits to share our learning from each of the partnerships.

This includes impact reports sharing the experiences of those involved in the partnerships, activity resource booklets and tools to support the evaluation of youthwork projects.

We have also been coordinating video interviews with some of the young people involved in the programme and hearing how the project has been for them.

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Brendan Owens from the Institute of Physics spoke about the learning from their Communities in Conversation Pilot project in partnership with Belong. The goal of the project was to connect groups of physicists with community groups, break down the hierarchy between them, share experiences and explore local and global issues together.