Lieke Dekker on Public Engagement

I am a project manager at the Wetenschapsknooppunt Utrecht. We connect primary schools with Utrecht University by organizing activities such as Meet the Professor, de Grote Wetenschapsdag and learning communities in which scientists, together with teachers, develop teaching material about their research.

Scientific research is not just for old men with grey hair like children inspired by cartoons often think. Everyone can do research. We would like to not only show children in primary education what a scientist does, but also how they can make up their own research questions and answers. Our goal is that every child who has finished primary school, knows about ​​scientific research and the university.

For me, public engagement is retrieving current questions from society and having them answered by scientists. At Meet the Professor we give participating schools the assignment to come up with questions for the professors, about research or the university. The professors answer these questions during their visit to the school. In fact, scientists and children are quite similar: they both have a lot of questions and want to discover the world around them. I often hear that it is inspiring for scientists to talk to children about their research. Children are curious and ask their questions open-mindedly, which leads to scientists having to look at their research in a different way and go back to the core.

Are you a researcher and would you like to engage with children or teachers of primary schools? Please contact Lieke Dekker, l.dekker@uu.nl.