Scientists Return to School

Broadening the horizons and improving learning opportunities for underserved children by promoting the return of scientists to their elementary schools.

“@ Cientista Regressa à Escola”, translated to “ Scientists Return to School” is a program designed to empower children for higher education and scientific careers, reducing inequalities among children in Portugal. The program is a platform where students create meaningful connections with science and scientists realizing that “people like me can be a scientist” and developing positive attitudes towards science. With this program, scientists and pupils from the same homeland are brought together to exchange knowledge and learn, thus promoting and popularizing a concept of circular education. The match between scientists and school teachers from the same homeland is IT-mediated and is initially made through an algorithm that identifies common zip codes. Importantly, with this program, scientists receive training to develop their science intervention effectively for children. The municipalities are engaged to financially support the implementation of the platform.

The overarching premise is to provide pupils, especially from underprivileged backgrounds, a platform for a personally relevant engagement with scientists. The platform consists of unique and hands-on science workshops that are developed and implemented by scientists who return to the elementary schools they attended.

We are tackling three major problems:

1-Low scientific literacy. A survey found percentages of 27% for low levels of scientific capital in youngsters. Thus, improving their science capital will increase public scientific literacy and encourage them to pursue thriving careers. Noteworthy, middle school is typically seen as a point of disconnect where science interest wanes, especially in underserved communities.

2- Educational inequalities. Children in disadvantaged situations have worse results regarding education, health, and satisfaction, therefore impacting life opportunities. Poverty and rural-urban discrepancies are in need of change. Reports show that the average education level among children aged 10-15 years old in Portugal has been improving, but inequalities among children from rural and urban areas remain. In spite of the improvements made from 1991 up to 2011, now 10 years later, the need to address this problem remains actual and solutions to improve it are of utmost importance. 

3- Poor scientist's participation in outreach. Although most scientists agree that interacting with the public is a valuable endeavour, they report feeling unprepared and believe that the public is not interested.

Not doing anything about this widens social inequalities and means that:

-Attainment gaps between low-income, low-educated families and high-income, high-educated families deepen.

-Misinformation and pseudoscience proliferate (e.g. movements against vaccination).

-Stereotypes about scientists and science careers persist. Students' disinterest in STEM-related careers grows. 

-Shortage and lack of diversity of highly skilled STEM professionals accentuate. 

-European countries do not realise their full economic and innovation potential.

Our primary target population is school children aged 6 to 12 years old. This group was chosen because: (1) most pupils describe science as “not for me” by the age of 10, and evidence shows that “activities and interventions need to begin in elementary school”. (2) Early exposure to role models is a powerful tool to break stereotypes. And (3), elementary schools have more curricula flexibility. 

Students nationwide, and especially the ones from underserved/underprivileged areas, are empowered with the belief that “I can be a scientist if I want to”, learn new scientific concepts, learn new vocabulary, meet role models, see scientists as normal, accessible people, and find the motivation to proceed to higher education at a later stage.

Our secondary target population are the scientists themselves. They will act as role models and instructors and they will receive training in science communication for the target audience. They will improve their communication skills thus increasing the impact of their work

The teachers and the parents are indirectly impacted by the program, as they are mediators of the platform. Other members of the community, such as local photographers, local journalists, and the general public, will also be indirectly impacted through the reporting of the work across local mass media channels. 

First of all, I have gained experience in the implementation of science education programs for underserved children by doing an internship with a non-profit organization called Native Scientist. With them, I engaged with over 100 scientists interested in science communication, understanding their goals and struggles regarding programs like this.

Secondly, In February 2021 I launched a survey to teachers and schools with the aim to gauge interest in a program like this. Results indicated that there is an appetite in Portugal for the program. More than 40% of the respondents (n=69) said there are no non-formal science activities in their school. The majority (93%) stated being interested in welcoming scientists in their classes and considered this proposal to be a viable option (88%). Noteworthy, 49% of the responses are from schools in what we considered a rural area (less than 50k inhabitants).

Following this survey, the team I assembled and I have met online with scientists and teachers to co-create the program. In September, we launched the website of the program and publicly disseminated the program through different media channels. In October 2021, we promoted the first platform for knowledge exchange between students and scientists of the same hometown. This was done in a school with a high percentage of students from low-income families, and where 75% met a scientist for the first time. Since then, we have established partnerships with 10+ city councils, and now have 250+ and 100+ registered scientists and teachers, respectively.

Scientists Return to School started its pre-launch phase in February 2021. Since then, we have (1) brought together a motivated and multidisciplinary team, (2) defined the project's concept and social mission, (3) created the visual identity, (4) tested market appetite (through a survey to teachers/schools and informal conversations with scientists and teachers), (5) developed the prototype event, where we tested the format of the workshops held in schools, and finally (6) worked and keep working on the distribution channels, key partnerships, and key resources.

We consider that by the end of the school year, i.e, by June 2022, our organization will have the program tested by implementing 15 events (1 event = 2 workshops) nationwide - Islands and rural communities included. At the beginning of the next school year, we will be in the Pilot stage.

The core technology powering our solution is:

1. Automated algorithm-based match making system - allows matching between scientists and teachers and makes the program scalable;

2. In-person hands-on and inquiry-based workshops - a platform that allows students to establish meaningful connections with scientists and positive attitudes towards science.

Internet, cloud-based softwares, online meeting platforms, email, social media and other IT-based tools are also fundamental to program management, impact evaluation, and dissemination. 

Right now the solution has served 50 students, 1 scientist and 2 teachers. In 2022 we expect to serve 750 pupils, actively involving 15 scientists and 30+ elementary school teachers.

As we expect to double these numbers yearly, in 2023 we are expecting to impact 1500+ pupils, 30 scientists and 60+ teachers. Within 8 years and from then onwards, we estimate and consider viability to be able to reach every single elementary school student in the 4th grade in Portugal.

Scientists Return to School expects to increase the number of 4th/grade school students who say:

- “I have already met a scientist”;

- “I liked meeting the scientist”;

- “I can be a scientist if I want to”;

- “I learned new science concepts”;

- “Science is “fun” and “amazing”, instead of “difficult” and “boring””;

- “Science is important for me”;

- “I would like to participate in science activities in the future”.

Based on data collected from the prototype event held in October, 75% of the 4th graders in public schools have never met a scientist prior to the workshops. As such, our goal is to reduce this statistic to 50% by 2025 and to 0% by 2028. Apart from this, we want students to develop positive attitudes towards science and scientists and therefore we aim to achieve a rate of over 90% of students in the program saying “I learned new science concepts” and “I liked meeting the scientist” after the interaction between students-scientists has taken place.

We plan to measure our progress by monitoring metrics such as: number of schools reached, ratio between rural/urban schools, number of students reached, science attainment value and self-concept in science before and after the intervention, number of students who meet a scientist for the first time in their lives, number of students interested in participating in science related activities in the future. We will be successful if we reach 15 schools in 2021/2022 and observe a positive change in science self-concept and future participation in science. We will measure this impact directly by administering feedback forms to pupils at the end of each interaction with a scientist, and indirectly through feedback forms to scientists and teachers. In the mid-term, we aim to partner with social scientists in order to develop a scientific study on the effectiveness of the program via a randomized controlled trial design. 

Financial barriers: testing the business model. We want to explore several ways of making the program sustainable, including fees-for-services whereby municipalities buy the service for their schools, and sponsorships, whereby corporates fund the programme at a more structural level and for those municipalities who are interested but cannot afford it, and donations, whereby individual people make one-off or regular money gifts. Cultural barriers: whereas science in Portugal is thriving in recent years, science education is still done in a very classical, theoretical way. At the elementary level, this is even more prominent as the majority of teachers is above 55 years old and see science as something difficult and not to cover in-depth. Technical barriers:  high or low buy-in from either teachers and/or scientists. This will require flexibility and adaptability from our team and platform, and we may need to make compromises.

Our team gathers young people willing to improve educational opportunities. Each one of us is diverse in background, higher education and participation in society, through volunteering in different projects (for example, European exchange projects, food bank support, and music and dance projects). We studied Psychology, Science Communication, Biology and Design. The different academic backgrounds, the previously mentioned experiences, the different hometowns, and the places we studied abroad provided us with a multiplicity of insights on Portugal educational gaps, enabled us to connect with different educational communities, in Portugal and abroad and empowered us to meet their needs.

We are so grateful and conscious of the educational opportunities we have had and how they shaped who we are, that we now want to give back to all the students who are not as empowered as we were. We believe that by combining our strengths and knowledge we have a multiplicity of tools to have a tremendous impact in raising up this valuable project. Importantly, the team counts with the support of an informal advisory group composed of experienced professionals in complementary areas to ours.

We are advocates of more inclusive and diverse societies. We believe no one should be left behind, and that equitable opportunities have to be assured to every student regardless of background. We are working forward to breaking the gap between the scientific community and students nationwide, while opening the door for most of the pupils to a new reality. As students ourselves, we are aware that this commitment can have a tremendous impact in our school communities and can deeply empower both the students and the scientists. Ultimately, we are driven by the idea that anyone can influence and positively impact another person and this can favour Portuguese education.

We partnered with:

- Universities and Research Institutes to recruit science students and professionals and give them further training in science communication;

- City Councils nationwide, that connect us to their schools, students and teachers;

-Governmental entities like the Ministry of Education and the Regional Direction for Science and Technology of the Azores, that support the dissemination and implementation of the program;

-Other partners include Ciência Viva, the national foundation for the promotion of scientific education, Fulbright Portugal and FLAD (Fundação Luso Americana para o Desenvolvimento), that give us visibility and resources.