We’re determined to make it as easy as possible for staff and students to get involved with public engagement. Our opportunities to engage span a wide range of activities throughout the year both on and off campus including open days, festivals, debates, film evenings and schools workshops. Explore our current top ten opportunities to get involved below. Meanwhile, you might also be interested in our Enabling Fund to help support great ideas of your own while our Skills and Development modules can help build your confidence and skills.
1. Experiencing Campus Science
Support our year-round programme of campus visitor experiences bringing people to the heart of genomics. Our public engagement zones embedded across campus are intended to be safe spaces for inquiry and discussion, stimulated by real interaction with staff and students.
2. Open Saturdays
Share the excitement of campus science with our growing following at our monthly Open Saturday events. Meet the wide range of public who visit the campus each month by leading a hands-on activities, participating in Open Lab or simply chatting to people about your work.
3. Open Lab
Open Lab is an immersive experience for campus visitors in the Bridget Ogilvie Building. In this space people can discover more about campus science and DNA sequencing. Through some short training learn how to use this space to interact with visitors and share the work that you do.
4. Festivals
Support or lead an event in some of the region’s largest festivals including the Cambridge Science Festival, Peterborough Science Festival and Festival of Ideas. You can also apply to our Enabling Fund to support your own ideas for future festival-based activities.
5. Cafe Scientifique Cambridge
Give a talk (but no slides please!) or help with organising our Cafe Scientifique programme. These events bring conversations on a host of scientific topics to central Cambridge in an informal, relaxed environment.
6. STEM Ambassadors
Sign up to the UK’s largest science ambassador scheme and keep up to date with schools opportunities across the region. To make things as convenient as possible, we’ve partnered with the regional STEM Ambassador hub to offer induction sessions right here on campus.
7. Schools outreach
Explore our suite of genomics activities ready to take to your local school. This is great for campus staff who want to encourage schools in their localities but who need some ready-to-go resources.
8. Teacher CPD
Help deliver our teacher continuing professional development (CPD) programmes – a vital part of our work to enhance confidence in the classroom and enrich curricula. Current programmes include our Bioscience Lite series with Babraham Institute.
9. Bite-size Science
Our series of visual lunchtime presentations – Bite-size Science – gathers audiences from across campus, from our groundskeepers to geneticists, so they are a great way to develop skills in creating a lively, accessible talk.
10. yourgenome
Share your science on yourgenome – the world’s largest single collection of genomics online information and learning resources. Our scientisits and researchers are at the heart of yourgenome and we’re always looking for fresh, topical new content.
If you want to learn more about any of the above email us at engage@wellcomeconnectingscience.org. You can also visit our page detailing a range of exciting external opportunities.
