How to turn an apple into an apple tree?

A group of UU researchers visited schools in and around Utrecht on 14 June as part of the 'Slimme Gasten’ (meaning smart guys) programme. The Slimme Gasten programme, organized by Utrecht University’s Science Hub, supports young researchers to share their research at Dutch primary schools.

One of the participating researchers was Lotte van der Haar, a junior researcher at the Utrecht University Centre for Global Challenges. Lotte was invited to a combined grade 4, 5, and 6 class in Zeist to discuss which important questions she tries to answer as a researcher.

Related to Lotte’s research on education in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), she discussed with the pupils how the circumstances in primary schools in LMICS, such as Kenya, are quite different from those in the Netherlands. The class also explored how these circumstances could influence the learning outcomes of the pupils in these countries. During the lesson, the pupils also worked on their research idea to improve education in LMICS:  the pupils drew and presented their idea of a lesson that could be helpful for pupils in LMIC. A first aid lesson, a lesson in which you learn how to make an apple tree out of an apple (so that you can share these apples with your community), and lessons on how to collaborate, were among the new research ideas that Lotte gathered from this experience.

The pupils also asked a lot of questions about the life of a researcher (for example, if the people that Lotte works with are nice, and what Lotte likes THE most about doing research). To the question about whether any of the pupils would be interested in doing research in the future, she even got a few ‘Yes’-es and a (very inspiring) ‘Well, it would be fun, but I already have a lot of dreams to pursue...’.