Open Creativity

Participatory design with young people

Dr Trevor Collins, The Open University

Dr Trevor Collins, The Open University

This case study was created by Trevor Collins, Peter Devine and Richard Holliman (The Open University) and Mark Russell (Denbigh School Teacher), with Lucy Turner, Daniel Roberts, Tiegan Stratford, Emily Banks, Cerys Griffiths, Olusola Ojo (Denbigh School Students).

This case study describes how a participatory design approach was applied to explore perceptions of school-university partnerships held by young people and university researchers, and to develop information resources for schools and researchers that communicate the values underpinning the initiative.

The Design Team, featuring Denbigh School Students, l-r: Lucy Turner, Daniel Roberts, Tiegan Stratford, Emily Banks, Cerys Griffiths, Olusola Ojo. Photo: Mark Russell]

The Design Team, featuring Denbigh School Students, l-r: Lucy Turner, Daniel Roberts, Tiegan Stratford, Emily Banks, Cerys Griffiths, Olusola Ojo. Photo: Mark Russell

A series of five school sessions and one university session were completed over the course of the year. The school sessions lasted between twenty and forty minutes each and were held during lunchtime. Six pupils ranging from 11 to 15 years of age, one teacher and three university staff were involved. The university session lasted around thirty minutes, involved 12 university researchers and was completed during a morning coffee break. From these sessions the pupils produced a design for a wristband that represents students’ involvement in SUPI activities.

In one of the activities we asked Denbigh School students and Open University researchers to illustrate the positive and negative attributes they associate with practitioners of public engagement with research. Watch the video below to see their responses.

To find out more, please have a look at the Case Study we produced for the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement, called: Participatory design with young people.

Media training
We ran five intensive media training courses over the four years of our SUPI, each with 10 Key Stage 5 students. The training was led by experienced media professionals, including Janet Sumner, Gerard Giorgi-Coll, Tom Ryan and Andrew Rix. They worked with teachers from local schools and colleges, including Elizabeth Clapton, Manisha Meisuria, Vikaas Mistry, Pippa Jennings and April Tricker.

The films feature a number of OU researchers, who are listed in the credits (see below for a link to the playlist). Helen Brown, Mark Russell and Anthony Steed (all from Denbigh School) helped to organise and support the media training workshops.

Media Training, December 2016: l-r, Pippa Jennings (Teacher), Year 12 Students from Denbigh School, Gerard Giorgi-Coll (Editor), Dr Janet Sumner (Executive Producer) and Kerry Reid (Assistant Producer and Postgraduate Research Student). Photo: Richard Holliman.

Media Training, December 2016: l-r, Pippa Jennings (Teacher), Year 12 Students from Denbigh School, Gerard Giorgi-Coll (Editor), Dr Janet Sumner (Executive Producer) and Kerry Reid (Assistant Producer and Postgraduate Research Student). Photo: Richard Holliman.

Over the five days of the courses students developed and practised new skills, such as working with digital tools and technologies, producing pieces to camera, and editing footage. The films, which cover topics as diverse as space science, the representation of scientists in popular media, educational technology, how to run a research café and studying for the EPQ.

Select the video below to link to the Engaging Opportunities playlist.