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The Science Learning Centre - South West was funded to develop a project targeted at Year 9 - 11 students who would not ordinarily consider studying STEM subjects at university, with the following objectives:

1. Through discussion and sharing, to broaden widening participation approaches used by university and third sector partners in order to better target under-represented students in compulsory 11-19 education
2. To use the outcomes from the above to investigate the potential for the development of an online resource that could be used to engage these under-represented groups
3. To identify possible sources of funding that would enable the online resource to be developed into an online package that could be used by all universities to engage and motivate students from under-represented groups to consider undergraduate STEM study

Outreach Methodologies

The initial phase of the project involved University of Bristol researchers and third sector educators in a launch meeting to discuss and consider the challenges in identifying and engaging under-represented groups. The aim was, initially, to share current best practice and to discuss how an online resource would be developed and to also discuss the methodologies for collecting data from the schools participating in the project.

The new Facebook timeline feature was discussed as a potential way of engaging students. By setting up a fictitious student user it would be feasible to post timeline entries to highlight and demonstrate experiences that engaged them as they made decisions about future STEM study and careers. This could then act as a model for other students to comment, share and engage with. 

The group believed this would have great potential, so a decision was made to arrange focus group sessions with secondary school students to inform the questions that would need to be answered on the timeline. Two schools, Orchard School in Bristol and Gloucester Academy, agreed to participate in the project. Following these focus groups, work is now underway to progress the Facebook timeline concept, with a focus on real-life case studies rather than fictional ones. 

How other organisations could adapt the model

Essentially, Science Learning Centre South West have acted as a broker between the schools and the universities in this project. Other Science Learning Centres could facilitate this role and all are already linked to at least one university. They have a wide range of partners and stakeholders and by negotiation with the network of Science Learning Centres, it would be possible to identify other science discovery centres to help broker a similar project in other areas.

In addition, Talent 2030 have expressed an interest in how the project might help support their own work.

Find Out More

You can find out more about the project by reading their final report below, or by heading to their project web-pages.

Science Learning Centre Final Report