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What can I bring to the development of my own activity?
what is good engagement?

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Pre-event briefing on 17/1
-Met at UREN White City with Jayne Shaw together with the rest of the undergraduate ambassadors

It is key to prepare ahead of time to deliver a strong outreach activity.

19/1
Today, I read through Lucas Low's (Backbone Biomechanics’ workshop lead) brief on the workshop activity.

Taster Day 20/1
Today is the actual day of the event. After ushering students to the right rooms, I attended Lucas’s briefing on his workshop.

1.Taster Lecture

The first session today as a Taster Lecture by Dr.Claire. This was very much a 'university style lecture', which makes it harder for some  Year 10 students to follow. The lecture slides might be too information dense for students. Possibly, this session could be improved by less use of scientific jargon and more references of concepts to previous slides to help students link the information.

Some students were very engaged and even wrote their own notes during the lecture! Part of teaching is inspiration. When Dr.Claire described her own story and journey in how she ended up pursuing a career as a researcher in Bioengineering, I think this really helped students to relate to her. It was a great inspirational story! I felt that this helped students catch an exciting dream for their future.

2. Spine Workshop
Students were tasked to build a model of the spine using clay and pieces of the spine. This activity really showcase the beauty of science and engineering and explained the difference between bioengineering versus biology. Lucas explained that in bioengineering much more focus is given to the functional anatomy of the spine which is the interest of engineers as opposed to remembering the names of the parts of the spine.

The style of delivery was great. The rest of the undergraduate ambassadors and I used lots of question to prompt students to keep them engaged. We encouraged them to use their current knowledge of the spine and some logical reasoning to build the spine model. This utilizes the  constructivism learning theory.[1] The group activity encouraged communication and teamwork.

3.) Lunch Chat with Students
Several students showed high interest in Bioengineering and the Bioengineering course in Imperial. Some undergraduates and I were able to share some of our journey getting into Imperial's Bioengineering programme.

4) Ventilator Workshop
This was a very well organized presentation/lecture followed by a workshop to help students solidify the concepts taught. Dr Joseph definitely used science jokes very well. There were lots of cool interesting demos. Students were encouraged to learn by discovering the 'right' questions and find the answers given the knowledge they already know.
The group based learning activities allowed students to help each other out. Simultaneously, they are also learning by teaching their peers and learning directly from their peers

The workshops complemented the content in the short lecture. Connectivism learning theory is used here.[2] Students learn by connecting the theory they learnt in the lecture with the demonstrations they are doing.

During Dr. Joseph’s Lecture, he used a few electronics concepts that students might already be familiar with  to explain concepts in fluid mechanics. This allows students to quickly pick up new concepts in fluid mechanics based on what they already learnt in electronics.

Overall Thoughts on Event
I think it was a very fun learning environment which definitely showcased the research in Imperial. I only wished I had this when I was in year 10 ;)

Works Cited

1.Golder, Joydip. “CONSTRUCTIVISM: A PARADIGM for TEACHING and LEARNING.” IJRAR1903214 International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews, vol. 5, no. 3, 2018, ijrar.org/papers/IJRAR1903214.pdf.

2.Siemens, George. “Connectivism.” Encyclopedia of Education and Information Technologies, 2020, www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Connectivism-Siemens/308a143efd0b0cc0b50266ba24fdf24d29d2e80f. Accessed 24 Apr. 2023.

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The feedback was very positive overall with good comments for all the different sessions in the event.

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During the spine workshop, some students were more disengaged and uninterested than others. Instead of quickly categorizing them as the ‘unsciency’ bunch, it might have been that they were struggling with the group activity but were uncomfortable to ask for help. In fact, I believe it is this group of students, that we need to help them do better in science and math class. Similarly, during Dr.Claire’ s taster session, some students appeared disengaged also. It is important to point out that this lecture format is quite different than what students are used to in their class. By considering alternative viewpoints, we can better understand and empathise with the needs of different group of students.

The main learning objectives for this outreach were:

1.     Introduce Bioengineering and some areas of research.

2.     Introduce Bioengineering undergraduate programme at Imperial College London

Some successes:

1.     Use of formative assessment by using group discussion during the spine workshop

2.     Student’s engagement throughout the event and the feedback they gave met the key the learning objective which was to introduce bioengineering to them and inspire them towards a future in bioengineering.

3.     In my opinion, the spine workshop and ventilator successfully showcased the beauty of Science and Engineering. They were well-organized and engaging. The group-oriented nature of these event also helped demonstrate to students the importance of teamwork to be successful in the department’s undergraduate courses.

Failures/ Areas for Improvements:

1.     Dr. Claire’s lecture was hard to follow for some students likely due to quite information-dense slides which includes a lot of scientific jargon. Although, she did fully explain the jargon and terms she used. More signposting of the scientific terms and concepts she used could help students keep up with her lecture. If given more time, she could have made her lecture more engaging by dispersing a few questions that highlights key concepts to help students engage better.  This suggests that possible this learning activity didn’t meet the needs of the learners of this age group. However, it can be argued that this taster lecture was meant to give students a real taste of learning in a university.

2.     There was no use of a summative assessment like a test or quiz. Therefore, it is hard to measure any other outcome apart from engagement of students in the subject of bioengineering. A short summative quiz could have been useful to assess how well the students have understood the concepts from the different lectures and workshops. However, this may be unsuitable for the nature of this event where a casual, relaxed learning environment is preferred.

Overall, I believe the event was a success, particularly in inspiring students towards bioengineering and learning and introducing some of the research in Imperial’s Bioengineering department in a way that is suitable in terms of technicality for Year 10 students.

Reflecting on this experience, the Bioengineering Outreach Day has showed me the importance of inspiring students to pursue a degree in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) from a young age. It is interesting that the event was held for Year 10 students instead of A-Level students. According to Jayne, the main event organiser, it is key to inspire this age group to pursue STEM since many of them may not choose to pursue some of the Science subjects in their GCSEs, therefore limiting their prospects to pursue a degree in STEM in the future. Furthermore, it is also important to use simpler language in lectures or workshops to make content more accessible to a wider range of students. Making references to key concepts in previous slides by signposting can be helpful for students to connect and link concepts. It is important to get feedback from students as demonstrated in this outreach as it can be very good insight to improve future iterations of the same ‘class’. Good use of ‘science’ jokes can help lift the mood in the class and keep students engaged. I also loved how Dr. Joseph used a few electronics concepts that students might already be familiar with  to explain concepts in fluid mechanics by drawing parallels between the two. This shows that a good grasp of the syllabus of the ‘target’ students is key.