Lieke Dekker

Diplomauitreiking van Lieke Dekker

Lieke Dekker (BSc Biology, 2012; MSc Neuroscience and Cognition, 2015) is programme maker at the Centre for Science and Culture of Utrecht University. Through programmes such as Meet the Professor and Summerschool Junior, she introduces about 25,000 primary school pupils to scientific research each year.

"In secondary school, I always had new questions for the teacher in every biology lesson, because I was so curious about how everything worked in the world around me. When I went to look at Utrecht University, it was highlighted that this curiosity is so important in biology. That's when the choice was quickly made."

From biology to science education

She became enthusiastic about science education through a part-time job at the University Museum and voluntary work at the Wadden Association. "During my master's, where I did a minor in science communication, I noticed that I liked this kind of work more than doing research."

Lieke now stimulates the curiosity that she herself had as a child among primary school children. For example through Meet the Professor, in which professors visit primary schools by bicycle and talk about their work. "Scientists and children are quite similar. They ask a lot of questions and want to discover the world around them. That connection generates great conversations."

Essence of the research

What she likes the most about her work? "Talking to scientists, extracting the essence of their research and then converting that into a fun and educational programme for children. For primary school children, you can come up with a whole host of playful forms of such a programme, such as a game, show or quiz."

But during the corona measures, this was difficult. A large part of the school programmes were forced to take place online, something that fortunately seems to be slowly changing again. "It's so nice when you're in a library or TivoliVredenburg with a room full of children and you feel that something is happening. I'm really looking forward to that again!"

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