The Science Faculty at the Open University has a long history of engaging a wide range of citizens with science-based issues, in particular through the co-production - we work in course teams as a matter of routine - of mixed media distance learning materials and, following the lenghty collaboration with the BBC, our ongoing broadcast output.
For more detailed information about the Science Faculty's current broadcast output see the link on the left-hand side.
The two projects listed below - BLAST and ISOTOPE - build on these strengths, establishing the Science Faculty at the Open Univesity as a leader in science outreach and public engagment.
The ISOTOPE Project
Informing Science Outreach and Public Engagement
ISOTOPE is a two-year NESTA-funded research project, that started on the 1st October 2006. The project team will use an action research approach to inform the co-production of an open source web portal of advice and guidance for those interested in participating science outreach and public engagement activities. Research findings gathered by the project will be disseminated through the usual academic channels, and to a sharing group, which will include both internal and external parties.
BLAST!
Broadcast-Linked Activities in Science and Technology
Blast is a new science outreach project, based at the Open University and supported by the Welcome Trust. The project’s main objectives are to produce a range of activities to support the Open University’s science broadcasts (programmes such as Rough Science, Coast and the forthcoming Nature of Britain); and to find innovative ways to generate an enthusiasm for Science among adults and children, in formal and informal educational settings.
The project started in December 2005.