Speaker
Description
The XMaS Scientist Experience was conceived as an impact project aimed at promoting career aspirations for 17-18 year old female school students. It was centred around the XMaS Beamline which is located at the European Synchrotron Radiation facility in Grenoble, France. The competition asks entrants to research a famous female role model and describe her impact to science and 14 successful winners are then taken to visit the facility and the city of Grenoble. It is currently in its third cohort and the programme has since been broadened to include complimentary events including the XMaS Science Gala and other events.
The Science Gala has now ran for two years, the second event taking place on the afternoon of 25th January when the University of Warwick welcomed 600 visitors of all ages to campus. The Gala included a total of 35 exhibition stands highlighting research and projects from across the Physics, Engineering, WMG, Chemistry and Life Science departments as well as outside organisations promoting careers in STEM. We also had tours of different research and teaching labs as well as the ability to view the cosmos in an inflatable planetarium. In addition, there were two talks programmes including an outreach talk for younger audience and a virtual visit to ATLAS at CERN for ages 12 and over. The visitors reported fantastic feedback of the event; of the 46 questionnaires returned 100% would recommend the event and would attend again. 28% saw an increase in scientific interest as result of the science gala (most were already ‘very interested’ and remained ‘very interested’).
We report the long term results from the first cohort of students who participated in the Scientist Experience programme who have now moved on from post 16 education. From the first cohort of 14 students, 9 have gone on to study science based degree at university. We also report on the feedback and evaluation of the Science Gala as well as plans for the future of the XMaS outreach project.
