Ingenious Public Engagement Grants Final Report Form The Royal Academy of Engineering’s Ingenious Public Engagement Grants support projects that:

• inspire creative public engagement with engineering;

• stimulate engineers to share their stories, passion and expertise in innovative ways with wider audiences;

• develop engineers’ communication and engagement skills;

• create debate between engineers and people of all ages to raise awareness of the diversity, nature and impact of engineering.

Additional information is available from www.raeng.org.uk/ingenious All enquiries should be directed to: Manisha Lalloo Assistant Manager, Public Engagement The Royal Academy of Engineering 3 Carlton House Terrace London SW1Y 5DG

020 7766 0683 manisha.lalloo@raeng.org.uk

© Crown Copyright (2012) HSL Report Number HuSU/12/49

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1. Grant details

a) Principal applicant/ grant holder details: Mrs Nicola Stacey

Technical Lead Risk Communication and Management Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) Harpur Hill, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 9JN

email: nicola.Stacey@hsl.gov.uk : 01298 218327 Report co-authors: Philip Beards and Jen Webster b) Grant reference Ing11 c) Funding: Total Ingenious grant awarded: £ 24,366 Total Ingenious grant amount spent1: £ 24,366 Total partnership funding received: £ 91,343

Source of partnership funding: HSL Investment Research Funding

Total in-kind support received2: £ 30,000

Summary of in-kind support received: Workshops, advice and promotional presentations to HSL staff from Primary Engineer, Derbyshire Education Business Partnership and Bloodhound. Display of posters at Buxton Museum and HSL staff personal time.

1 For any significant under-spend, please provide further details in the sections below. 2 These costs are estimates based on the hourly rates of equivalent staff at HSL

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2. Project details

a) Project: title: Crash It, Don’t Smash It

– improving your world with engineering start date: 1st April 2011 end date: 30th September 2012 b) Project objectives

• Provide approximately 20 engineers, working at HSL, with the opportunity to take part in communication training.

• Select 10 of those engineers and give them the opportunity to build upon

the training, and further develop their communication and public engagement skills by providing them with an opportunity to develop and carry out workshops with school children and parents.

• Engage with the public, mainly teachers, parents and children, by

carrying out a “hands-on” workshop demonstrating practical engineering techniques and how they can be applied to make the world a better place by mitigating risk.

• Run ten workshops in schools with the aim of each one reaching

between 20 and 40 children and their parents demonstrating the impact and benefit of the application of engineering solutions.

• Run a poster competition, on the theme of how engineering solutions

protect people, seeking to get at least 150 entries. Children with the best entries will be invited, along with their parents and teachers, to a presentation ceremony. Opportunities to exhibit the posters will be explored and press coverage sought.

• In the longer term, HSL engineers to regularly use the material

developed with visits to schools or visits of the public to the laboratory.

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c) Project summary

Engineers influence every part of modern life. Their work includes addressing risk and managing uncertainties. This project aimed to develop the public engagement skills of engineers at the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) who specialise in understanding how engineering provides solutions to reduce risk, hence enabling the benefits of technology to be realised while minimising the potential for harm. They also investigate root engineering causes of the failure of work equipment that either did, or had the potential to, kill or seriously injure people. HSL has approximately 35 degree-qualified engineers from a wide range of disciplines including mechanical, chemical, electrical, electronic, structural, metallurgy and materials, computer, control and instrumentation.

Following appropriate training in communication skills and child protection

issues, including a Criminal Records Bureau check, HSL engineers, in pairs, twice visited ten local primary schools. On the first visit, they gave a presentation about their job and answered questions that the children had prepared in advance based on information provided in a child friendly CV and information on the HSL web site. On the second visit children participated in a ‘hands on’ activity in which they got to step into an engineer’s shoes. The activity involved using a scale model of HSL’s ten tonne drop rig, originally built to test pit bottom buffers, but since used for testing offshore pipeline protectors from anchor strikes and the robustness of nuclear transportation packages. Children had to design a way of protecting an egg from cracking when set on an impact course with the ground (see figures 1 and 2). They also learnt how to conduct an experiment and record results.

The informal format of the sessions provided a forum for lively interaction

between engineers, teachers and children. The overall goal was to promote an understanding and appreciation for engineering and its role in making the world of work safer and healthier.

The participating engineers were all volunteers, and represented a range of

grades, ages and experience. About half were confidant and experienced at giving technical presentations to their peers or the lay public as expert witnesses in court during inquests or criminal proceedings. A few had previously given presentations at schools, participated in after schools clubs, were involved with scouts or cubs and one, who provided much valuable advice and encouragement, has been a STEM3 ambassador for several years. The other half had more limited presentation and communication experience, a significant proportion having very little or none. A small team developed a template for the presentation and the hands-on activity including scripts and kit lists. Each pair of engineers who visited schools contained at least one experienced person who was the main point of contact for the schools and led the activities.

3 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

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Figure 1 and 2: Scale model of drop rig and a protected egg within the cage

d) This is the first time HSL has completed a public engagement with engineering

project.

3. Key outcomes – metrics a) Target number of activities, events and/ or resources

• Provide risk communication training for 20 HSL engineers. • Deliver 10 interactive workshops in local schools following a pilot, to test

the concept and check timings, with children from a local cub-scouts group.

• Poster competition and display in local museum

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b) Actual activities, events and/ or resources delivered

• Two-hour workshop at HSL, facilitated by “Primary Engineer”, which included designing, building and racing elastic and balloon powered cars, to promote the project, recruit HSL engineers and determine the level at which to pitch a hands-on activity for the target school age.

• Three half-day CRB workshops delivered by Derbyshire Education

Business Partnership (DEBD). • Onsite Bloodhound STEM Ambassador training course, which included

training and practice in presentational and communication skills.

• Launch event for teachers from the participating schools in association with “Primary Engineer”.

• One day practical communications training for HSL engineers, which

included theory, fun mini-exercises, an opportunity to deliver a pre-prepared presentation and obtain feedback on their performance from a small non-technical audience (the trainer and a primary school teacher) as well as an experienced STEM Ambassador.

• Joint presentations by pairs of engineers followed by question and

answer session given at ten local schools, on occasions several times in a day to different classes.

• Pilot of ‘save the egg’ hands-on workshop activity with a cub group which

confirmed the timings and content of the activity would work well with the target age group.

• ‘Save the egg’ hands-on workshop activity run with ten local schools,

plus a scout group, which demonstrated that it also worked just as well with older children.

• Display of competition entry posters in a communal area at HSL, known

as ‘the street’, where staff and visitors have lunch and informal meetings.

• Prize-giving event for winning children and their families, which included a short tour of HSL with practical demonstrations and a visit to see the full-scale ten tonne drop rig.

• Display of posters at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery until Saturday 3rd

November.

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c) Other comments on metrics

It was realised early in the project that something was needed to motivate HSL engineers to participate, hence the reason for the initial workshop building and racing the cars. Establishing the right level at which to pitch our activity for primary school children was also a challenge. It was therefore decided to use the Bloodhound STEM Ambassadors team, who the lead researcher had met at the evaluation surgery for participants in the Ingenious program, to deliver their one day STEM Ambassadors training course to a core group of engineers. This training enabled this group a have clear understanding of the level at which to pitch the hands-on activity, and gave them ideas and the skills to develop an appropriate engaging and hands-on activity, which related to the work of HSL.

On advice from Primary Engineer, an organisation that runs activities with

schools, it was decided that an initial presentational event at the schools prior to the hands-on activity would help break the ice for both the children and engineers and set the scene for the activity. This enabled everyone involved to have an enhanced experience.

Various internal dissemination activities also took place or are planned; see

section 7, item c.

4. Key outcomes - engineers

a) Metrics

The target was for 20 HSL Engineers to attend risk communication training, for 10 of them to deliver a hands-on activity in a local school and some to become STEM ambassadors.

Two formal training events were organised. The first, delivered by Bloodhound,

was attended by 9 engineers. The second, delivered by DEBP, was attended by 10 engineers. A few engineers attended both training events so less than our target of 20 received formal communications training. Attendees came from a variety of engineering backgrounds, experience, age and the full grade range. Those who did not attend formal communications training had already had similar training in the past and many years of experience, including working with children. The CRB workshops were attended by 22 engineers and whilst the focus was on child protection issues the workshop also provided an opportunity to discuss the likely expectations of the children, teachers and themselves. Two

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engineers, who participated in delivery to the schools, already had CRBs that could be used, one already being a STEM Ambassador and the other being a governor at the school at which he delivered the event.

The Primary Engineer workshop was attended by 15 engineers and around 10

engineers participated in the launch event. A total of 16 engineers went out to schools, in pairs, to give a presentation

and/or deliver the hands-on practical activity. Two of these have now left HSL and taken up posts with other companies, one has transferred to HSE and a fourth is currently on secondment.

As a result of this project, and taking into account the loss of four engineering

staff members, HSL now has 21 STEM Ambassadors with an engineering background whereas it previously only had two. So far two of the new STEM Ambassadors have currently gone on to deliver further events. b) Experiences

Enjoyable: The engineers said that working on the project had been enjoyable. The children’s obvious excitement and engagement during the demonstrations, along with the engineers’ sense that they were being able to pass on their knowledge to a new generation of budding scientists and engineers added to their overall enjoyment. "I didn't encounter any kids who were sat in the corner sulking because it wasn't cool". Engineers also enjoyed being able to respond spontaneously to the children’s questions.

"...we went right off on a tangent about metallurgy metals and the periodic table and elements.. It's amazing, really fired up".

Interesting: The engineers were interested to see the impact on the teachers and children taking part, and were surprised by how enthusiastic they were. Although the engineers went to the schools with a planned presentation they often adapted their approach depending on which elements of their presentation had 'fired up' the children’s imaginations. Reflecting back on their experiences had also helped them appreciate how they take for granted how interesting their work is.

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"[The] children found it interesting, [the] teacher found it interesting, [it is ] very easy to forget that as we do it everyday."

Informative: A key learning point for engineers was a greater appreciation of the need to tailor their presentation to their audience, to keep it simple, straightforward and avoid or explain technical terms. They found this aspect of the communications training thought provoking and challenging but also fun.

“You've got to be able to sort of switch into simplistic mode". They were rewarded for their efforts as the questions that the children asked showed that they had understood. However some engineers expressed concern that they may have made their presentations too simplistic. Interactive: N/A Well-organised: The engineers had mixed experiences of liaising with teachers to arrange dates and gather feedback. " we didn't get a letter of invitation, they didn't think about any questions beforehand which...was a bit of a shame." The experience of engineers who had a direct link with the teacher was more positive. However, some engineers could only contact teachers indirectly. Some teachers did not know the date of the engineers' visit and others forgot, as the engineers were unable to confirm arrangements with them directly. HSL Engineers also expected more direction and organizational support from the project manager and technical lead.

c) Impacts Raised awareness:

The engineers clearly now recognise many of the barriers to good communication and know how to overcome them. They experienced first hand the impact of being able to engage and interact with the audience.

"Good to get them involved as much as you can not just talk to them"

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Several commented that working in pairs helped them achieve this. They also recognised that what often looked acceptable as a presentation on paper was not suitable for delivery orally. The many opportunities for interactions also made them much more aware of one another’s knowledge and expertise.

Improved interest/ attitudes:

The engineers were surprised and “fired-up” by how enthusiastic and receptive pupils were to the workshops. There was a consensus that they would like to repeat and expand their STEM work, perhaps visiting older children as well as going back to the same schools they visited to do more work. They put considerable effort, including personal time, into developing their presentations and child friendly CVs, helping one another revise and improve them. Despite this only two, as far as is known, have repeated the hands-on activity with other schools, or taken part in other STEM Ambassador activities.

Developed skills:

The engineers all thought their involvement had helped them develop their public engagement skills, even those who have considerable experience of presenting to their peers or professional groups. They learnt how to engage the attention of their audiences, how joint presentations and interactive sessions could be used to great effect, gained a greater awareness of the impact of technical words and phrases, were now more likely to consider how they explained what they did in a way that was meaningful to the person in front of them and felt more confident that they were able to respond to challenging questions.

d) Additional information / data collection

The participating engineers were all volunteers and employees of the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) a public sector agency of the Health and Safety Executive. The engineers represented the full range of engineering grades (from graduate entry to unit head), ages and experience. About half were confidant and experienced at giving technical presentations to their peers or to the lay public, regularly appearing, as expert witnesses, in court during inquests or criminal proceedings. A few had previously given presentations at schools, participated in after schools clubs, were involved with scouts or cubs and one has been a STEM ambassador for several years. The other half had more limited presentation and

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communication skills and experience, a significant proportion having very little or none. During recruitment events one of the most often expressed hope was being able to enthuse the next generation of engineers and the most expressed fear was that they would fail to engage or interest the children. The actual experiences of engineers during their contact with the children were therefore very positive. The engineer’s enthusiasm and enjoyment was also very clear to see during many of the developmental activities they participated in, as shown for example in figure 3 below.

Figure 3: Awareness raising activity for HSL engineers run by Primary Engineer

The information, described above, was collected using a focus group

comprising a sample of 6 of the16 engineers who ran an event at a school. The discussions were recorded (with consent) but to save time not fully transcribed. Instead key ideas, quotes and themes were picked out and entered into a database for analysis. This methodology was chosen because a detailed exploration of the views and experiences were required. Further insights into how the engineers’ views had changed were gained through conversations and observations during development and recruitment events when they were encouraged to express their hopes and fears.

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5. Key outcomes – public audiences and specialist groups

“At the end of the activity when asked whether they thought their view of engineering had changed everyone put up their hands.”

Parent and HSL engineer a) Metrics

The intended key outcomes were to reach a public audience consisting of 200 primary school children, 10 teachers and 50 parents.

The actual audience type and numbers reached were 323 primary school

children, who attended presentations and/or took part in the hands-on workshop activity. However, due to sampling and organisational issues only 198 questionnaires could be used for evaluation purposes. Ten teachers from ten different schools were given a tour of HSL and took part in the at-school activities.

Due to logistic issues of communicating with teachers, none participated in a

telephone interview and only two returned email questionnaires, the purpose of which was to gather their experiences and evaluate impacts. Eight parents/grandparents and one sibling attended the prize-giving event, 15 an assembly at which a presentation about the HSL events were presented and some joined in with the activities at the schools.

It was clear from non-engineering HSL staff whose children attended one of

the participating schools that the parents got to know about the activities via the children.

“How nice to have my 10 year old come back from school totally enthused

because of your visits. After your first visit he was full of excitement about diving, pressures, and how big they are. Feedback after your second visit was even better. He came back home all fired up with enthusiasm on drop tests, cushioning blows, avoiding test subject ejection, and all the other exciting engineering type stuff you can learn from not smashing an egg. WOW !!”

email from parent

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And that parents spoke to one another. “One of the other parents I spoke to said that their children were so excited

about the visits that they looked up HSL on the internet – I didn’t realise you worked at such an interesting place”.

parent

Figure 4: HSL engineer giving demonstration during prize giving tour The schools who took part in the poster competition have been informed that

the posters are now on display at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery. It is hoped that the schools will inform parents and that they will take the opportunity to go to the exhibition. However the exact number of parents that have or will be reached is unknown.

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b) Experiences4

Figure 5: Children participating in hand-on ‘save the egg’ activity

Enjoyable: Primary school children were asked in the post-event questionnaire if they found the activity they took part in enjoyable, 98% of those who responded said yes they did. 8 out of 9 teachers who attended the launch event said that is was very enjoyable, and one that it was quite enjoyable. “very nice to meet enthusiastic professionals from another area of work”

Interesting: Primary school children were asked in the post-event questionnaire if they found the activity they took part in interesting, 98% of those who responded said yes they did. All the teachers who attended the launch event said that it was very interesting one saying the sessions were “fantastic”. “Very interesting to find out what HSL does”

4 Parents were not surveyed and only two email questionnaires sent to teachers were returned so this data has not been included in the evaluation.

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Informative: Whilst this data was not collected via the questionnaire for the primary school children the write-ups of their interviews and posters that they produced about the hands-on activity, demonstrated that they had clearly understood the underlying engineering approach. All the teachers who attended the launch event said that they thought it was informative.

Interactive: The children were not asked directly whether they found the event interactive. However the data from interviewing the engineers, who took part in the event, and the photos in figure 5 on page 14, certainly indicates that they had many different opportunities to interact with the activity.

Well-organised: All the teachers who attended the launch event said that they thought it was well organised. “A brilliant event – thank you!”

c) Impacts Raised awareness:

The project hoped to give primary school children, their parents and teachers a better understanding of what engineers do. The percentage of children who said they didn’t know a lot about what engineers do prior to the visits by the HSL engineers fell from 26% to 3% and the number who said they know a lot about what engineers do increased from 6% to 31%. Primary school pupils were also asked what jobs they thought an engineer does before the event and again afterwards. Figure 6 overleaf shows that, on the whole, their understanding improved.

Improved interest/ attitudes to engineering:

Children were asked in the post event questionnaire if they would consider becoming an engineer themselves. Of the 179 that answered 45% said yes they would like to be an engineer. Children were also asked “How much do you think the work of engineers in the field of health and safety helps people to do things?” The percentage who thought they helped a lot increased from 36% to 63%. Children were then asked to choose words to

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describe engineering. Figure 7 shows how choices changed after the events. The increase in choice of ‘messy’ no doubt related to smashing eggs.

Figure 6: Percentage change, between the pre and post event questionnaires, of children who responded Yes when asked: Which of these jobs do you think

engineers do?

-5% -4%

28%

-4%

41%

1%

20%

47%

26%

-10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

1

Yes Response

Perc

enta

ge C

hang

e

ExcitingComplicatedBoringCleverInterestingJust for BoysFunJust for GirlsMessy

Figure 7: Percentage change, between the pre and post event questionnaires, of

children who responded Yes when asked: Which words would you use to describe engineering?

-2%

30%

48%

1%

28%

11%

30%

11%

37%

25%

17%

-10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Yes response

Perc

enta

ge c

hang

e

Designing bridges and roadsRepair carsDevelop new sources of fuelCarry out researchFix washing machinesDevelop computer gamesDevelop computer softwareOperate machines in factoriesFind better ways of recycling wasteDesign planes, cars and trainsTeach

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d) Additional information/ data collection

All the teachers who attended the launch event said that it had increased their awareness of the nature of engineering; the impact of engineering on society and their interest in engineering. Indirectly, via HSL staff on Parent Teacher Associations, it is quite clear that most schools would like to participate in such activities if run by HSL again.

Feedback from HSL engineers during focus groups indicated that they felt they

had a major impact on the children’s perceptions

"from the children's point of view, I think prior to us they just thought an engineer was a guy in the local garage with a spanner"

“from mucky dirty mechanic to.... oh engineering’s a much bigger thing”

Teachers were not asked to fill in questionnaires during the events as it was not felt appropriate to disrupt teachers from their supervisory role, particularly when the children had been doing something out of the ordinary. Instead it was hoped that they would fill in questionnaires sent by email or participate in telephone interviews. Data from the children was collected through two questionnaires. The first of these questionnaires was given before the engineers’ visit, the second afterwards. It is possible that the results of the questionnaire are confounded by social desirability bias, i.e. children’s desire to please the person in authority. However, the small non-significant changes to some negative concepts associated with engineering indicate this was probably not the case.

6. Shared learning a) Successful elements of the project: Completing the evaluation template at the beginning of the project helped focus minds on what needed to be done. Input and advice from partners was invaluable for producing events that were a good experience for both the engineers and schools. Producing flexible presentational templates and activity scripts saved time and ensured that children got essentially the same experience. The engineers found having a framework to work with improved their confidence in participating. Being able to tailor content to match their personal

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expertise and interest allowed a more natural delivery. Children having an opportunity to prepare in advance also proved rewarding. b) Less successful elements of the project and learning points Difficulty communicating with the schools was a recurring issue leading to one pair arriving to find the school had forgotten about the visit, children not having chance to prepare questions in advance, 100 pieces of children’s data being invalid, no evaluation of teacher’s opinions and a poor response to the poster competition. Strong direct lines of communication between HSL staff delivering the events and the teacher of the class will, therefore, be essential in the future. It was also a challenge to get the engineers to take ownership of developing the activity, working to a defined timetable and organising delivery amongst themselves. c) Collaboration with partners

An early partner was ‘Primary Engineer' who ran an event to help recruit engineers, and provided invaluable support, advice and guidance that enabled HSL to develop and deliver an enhanced experience for both engineers and children. Unfortunately a lack of urgency, on the part of HSL engineers, regarding having a suitable activity ready for the launch event, caused some friction. Although HSL were not able to develop an activity that dove-tailed into their national racing car challenge for schools, some pupils submitted their interviews for Primary Engineer’s leaders award scheme. For information about this see their website at http://www.leadersaward.com/.

DEBP delivered three well-organised, informative and enjoyable half-day CRB workshops. They also very kindly ran through the workshop at their premises with one of our cameramen so he could take some high-speed video of the testing of the effectiveness of the children’s designs in protecting the egg. DEBP also developed a bespoke one-day practical communications training course and provided support and advice throughout the project.

Buxton Museum and Art Gallery have been very accommodating in displaying the posters for an extended period and ensuring that appropriate information is provided to explain the background to the poster competition to the public. d) Insights into quality of HSL internal and external communications

Although HSL has a multi-disciplinary approach to delivering project work it was apparent that, whilst some engineers had good awareness of the expertise of others, it was clear many junior and some senior staff did not. Many activities

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were run on-site, requests for support and volunteers made to unit heads and a HSL eNews article asked people to nominate schools. Despite this and the significant number of participating staff over the 18 months it was clear at the lunch-time staff seminar held after the school visits that some were totally unaware of the project.

7. Additional information a) Other outcomes and impacts

One of the children who submitted their write-up of their ‘interview’ of a

HSL engineer for Primary Engineer’s leaders award went on to be one of six to win the national special leaders award5.

One school gave a presentation of the engineers’ visit and the workshop at their whole school assembly that was attended by around 200 pupils, 10 teachers and 15 parents.

The internal staff lunch-time seminar was attended by 41 HSL staff and was well received with people taking the time to find us afterwards to say how much they enjoyed it, would like to get involved in future activities or nominate schools. Others emailed us to same effect.

The project gave engineers an opportunity to get to know one another better during the many activities organised during the event. "it's brought a lot of us in here and HSL together from different sections and then you have a bit more of an insight into [what] different engineering groups exist"

As a result of the prize-giving event HSL received a business enquiry from one of the parents relating to infection control.

5 http://www.leadersaward.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=70

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b) Additional evaluations

Two quantitative methods were used to assess the changes in the children’s perception of the role of an engineer. The first test, a paired sample t-test found a number of statistically significant differences between the pre and post evaluations. By the post evaluation:

• More children used the words ‘exciting, clever, interesting, fun and messy’ to describe engineering.

• More children were aware of what an engineer does • More children thought engineers in the field of health and safety help

people to do things.

As there were a number of different variables, a chi-square test was also used to check for consistency. This identified that fewer children thought engineering was ‘just for girls’.

c) Dissemination

Information about the project was disseminated to HSL staff through a

short piece on eNews, a lunch-time seminar and pamphlets about the seminar in communal areas.

Dissemination to both staff and visitors to HSL was through a recruitment poster during the friends and family open-day held as part of HSL’s centenary celebrations, and the display of the posters entered into the competition.

Dissemination to VIPs was via the VIP open day held as part of the centenary celebrations and featuring the project during an external review of HSL’s science. The winning posters have also been enlarged for longer term display in a communal area at HSL known as ‘the street’ where staff take breaks, and have informal meetings internally or with visitors.

Dissemination more widely could be achieved through presenting the project at a conference such as the Higher Education Academy’s new STEM Conference, for which the deadline for abstracts is 21st November.

d) Further work

There is considerable enthusiasm and interest from HSL staff, engineers and others. The lunch-time seminar generated a lot of interest. There were also several schools that would have liked to participate that we could not accommodate during the timescales of this project.

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HSL staff, who were already STEM Ambassadors, continue to be active

and supportive and there are indications that the new STEM Ambassadors are organising other activities at other venues such as recently at the Buxton Library. “Thank you to Stefan and Emma for delivering a fabulous event and for all the thought and preparation that must have gone into it”.

Buxton Librarian

However more organisational support and line management encouragement is needed before STEM Ambassador activities becomes embedded in the culture at HSL. This is compounded by a reluctance of staff, who would benefit from experience, to volunteer for activities that would enable them to practice their communications skills and a tendency for those seeking volunteers to ask those who they know will do it well.

Four enthusiastic volunteers leaving HSL is likely to impact on the capacity to deliver events. However, the imminent recruitment of technical staff is an ideal opportunity to create new STEM Ambassadors.

e) Collaborations and partnerships

Collaboration with DEBP will be essential should HSL continue to provide opportunities for staff to run public engagement activities. DEBP have kindly agreed to re-run their excellent CRB workshop and practical communications training at HSL. Their newsletter is also a good source of ideas and their networking events could be used to recruit new schools.

There is considerable enthusiasm at HSL board level to run the poster competition again, in which case collaboration with the museum will be essential. Now that a working relationship with the Buxton Museum and Art Gallery has been developed it is anticipated that other opportunities to work together in some mutually beneficial way will arise.

A more concerted effort should be made in the future to ensure that the presentation and Q&A sessions are run so as to dove-tail with Primary Engineer’s leaders award scheme and that schools are given more support and encouragement to participate.

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8. Media coverage a) Items of media coverage that the project generated:

National press Regional press 1 Local press Online 2 Radio TV Specialist media (e.g. Times Educational Supplement, Ingenia)

Other (Buxton museum) 1 b) Other comments on media coverage

Schools did initially plan to get local press involved however it is not known whether this actually happened. As a result of the prize-giving event one of the parents has asked that she is sent a copy of the press release so that she can also send it to her local paper in Rotherham.

With permission this report could be posted on the Risk Education Network that is managed by the principal grant holder.

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9. Other comments

The project developed the following resources that could be used again in the future and which the grant holder can make available to others:

1. Table of the benefits of public engagement activities. 2. Tailorable powerpoint presentation. 3. Examples of child friendly CVs. 4. Scripted activity and resources list. 5. Pre and post event questionnaires for children. 6. Teacher evaluation questionnaire. 7. Check sheets of what to remember when organising the school activities.

The challenge of organising the events for themselves, particularly the liaison

with schools, was more often than not a frustrating experience for HSL engineers. This was exacerbated at times by having up to five different people apparently coordinating the project. The project management team was unable to provide as much support as the volunteer engineers sometimes expected due to the considerable burden this would require. Moreover for the outcomes of the project to be sustainable the volunteers had to be able to be proactive in following up opportunities and independently organise the running of the events. Clearer defined roles and responsibilities including one person to coordinate activities and maintain the paper and physical resources are therefore needed for ongoing success.

Lunch-time staff seminars and events on ‘the street’ are crucial for letting staff know what is happening across HSL. However, more needs to be done to encourage staff to participate, both in delivering and attending these activities. It is hoped that the insights into HSL’s culture will feed into a recent initiative, known as the HSL way, to improve HSL business and customer focus.

The enthusiasm of all those directly involved with the events (i.e. HSL engineers, children and teachers) far exceeded expectations leading to a universally positive experience. The project provided an opportunity to let staff feel good about themselves, the organisation that they work for and to remind themselves what interesting jobs they have. Thank you This publication and the work it describes were part-funded by the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) Investment Research Program. Its contents, including any opinions and/or conclusions expressed, are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect HSL policy.