Schools' Accelerator Science Workshop

At a local level, the project will engage pre-sixth form school children in physical sciences, engineering and scientific principles in machine construction. Participants will gain experience of putting their scientific knowledge into practice. The workshops will be geared towards year 9 pupils before they will have made up their minds about which A-level subjects to take and will be delivered in the second half of June when many schools have activity or work experience weeks. Keen year 10 pupils may also attend as they will be off school having completed GCSE exams. It is hoped that this will inspire pupils to take scientific topics for further study and to consider science and engineering as a career option.
By targeting certain schools the aim is to redress the balance and encourage more female engagement as well as children from less privileged backgrounds who may otherwise not consider a career in science and, more generally, further education as a potential pathway.

Teachers will attend the workshops and it is expected that this will inspire them to incorporate ideas from the workshops into their teaching to support them in promoting science and engineering as career pathways.

Scientist volunteers (including postgraduate students from the University of Liverpool, the University of Manchester and the University of Lancaster) will be involved and gain experience in explaining science and engaging with the public which will help in their communication skills, in particular with an awareness of preparing material appropriate for the audience.

Professional videos of the workshops will be produced and participating pupils will be involved in filming. This will maximise impact indirectly with widespread dissemination achieved through school social media interactions and web sites as well as institutional conduits. This will widen dissemination to a national level, promoting the applied science aspects.
Resources will be developed in the form of 'how to...' worksheets. The latter will complement these accessible videos to be promoted via our quality-controlled public web sites and social media to broaden dissemination. Worksheets will also be distributed via other outreach events such as the Big Bang and via STFC's Public Engagement team.

In addition, this event will increase the capability of our team which is already experienced at putting on outreach lectures and demonstrations. Organising and delivering interactive workshops will take us to the next level in public engagement and help for the organisation and delivery of more ambitious programmes funded through other national sources such as STFC Large Awards Scheme and at a European level (i.e. European Researchers' Night).

The Scientists' Experience:
Volunteer scientists will need to commit to one day's training on the construction of all three machines and attendance as a facilitator at one of the workshops. Expenses will be covered and lunch provided. The team of volunteers will be composed of postgraduate students from the University of Liverpool, the University of Manchester and the University of Lancaster and ASTeC scientists, bringing personnel from different institutions together. Recruitment of volunteers will primarily be conducted at the Cockcroft Institute, STFC Daresbury Laboratory since the institute is host to postgraduate students from all three HEI and ASTeC.

A sustainable and duplicable outreach activity:
STFC's Public Engagement team will bring their extensive experience of outreach to assist in the training. It is expected that both experienced and new outreach volunteers will be engaged but in most cases previous experience will have been with more general demonstration such as at stands at the Big Bang or open days. Consequently, the volunteers will gain from more in-depth engagement with pupils which will help them improve their communication skills, in particular in explaining at a level appropriate to the audience. The assistance of STFC's Public Engagement team will ensure that the volunteers are trained in this and know what to expect.
In the long-term, the experience gained during this project and its outcomes ("How to..." worksheets, videos) will be further explored and used by STFC's PE team who are currently aiming at developing a "Particle Accelerator" workshop for their activities. Workshops will be polished and duplicated during their activities and open days (i.e. "Open Days 2016", first week of July) at Daresbury Lab.