Discovery Planet Pop-Up

Through an exciting programme of six hands-on workshops per year over the course of two years, delivered from a pop-up shop located in the heart of the high street, we will create a prolonged relationship between scientists and members of an under-served audience. Participants will develop the skills and confidence to actively engage with science, and a broad range of STFC related research being carried out at the University of Kent; and understand how it relates to their lives. Workshops will build upon basic scientific principles to explore topics such as telescopes, star formation, impacts in space, material properties and how they relate to atomic scale structure and the accelerator science that allows us to observe that structure. A diverse group of scientists at all stages of their career will develop communication skills allowing them to interact with our target audience and use their personal experiences to create exciting and inspiring activities.

The workshops represent a scaling-up of Discovery Planet's accessible delivery model which involves weaving learning experiences into the everyday lives of people of all ages, and intensive outreach which enables us to reach the most under-served members of Thanet's significantly deprived coastal community. These carefully coordinated engagement experiences allow families to learn together in an informal and accessible way, building science capital in those that would not normally have access to other more traditional experiences. An academic evaluation of the long-term impact of engagement with an under-served audience is an innovative element since such an evaluation has not previously been undertaken, and can be shared widely to extend the collective pool of knowledge for science communicators.