Outreach and research

23 February

Isabel Seguro

What do you think researchers are like? Probably, the first image that comes to your mind is someone in a white lab coat, working with colourful chemicals. Or perhaps it’s someone in front of a computer plotting some data. These scientist stereotypes mainly come from films – since most scientists carry out their work away from other people’s daily life it is hard for many to see the real variety of researchers and their roles. If we don’t challenge this stereotype, however, we risk a generation of children seeing a science career as something that they could not do because it is so niche or difficult to relate to.

Part of a researcher's work is to do outreach, and make our job open, accessible and useful for a wider audience than scientists themselves; research cruises are an excellent opportunity to show an enticing side of our work. This year, one month before getting onboard the RRS Sir David Attenborough, I visited a primary school and asked the children to form groups and draw something about Antarctica. They could paint about what they think we do in Antarctica and/or include themselves in the painting! They loved this idea and one month later I came back and spoke with them about climate change. I brought with me some Antarctic photos from the previous expedition, which seemed to inspire all sorts of scientific questions.

I believe we are more prone to feeling we can do something if we can see somebody else doing it, especially if that person is part of our family, our gender, our race, or shares our culture or life experiences. Women in science are typically underrepresented, so I was especially pleased to see that seven-to-ten year old girls were particularly interested during the talk. We finished the activity with the kids explaining their paintings to me and I promised them that I would take the paintings with me to Antarctica, so part of them could reach the most unexplored continent!

A few weeks later, a colleague helped me to take these photos and I sent them back to the school.

The teachers said the kids loved the entire experience and they felt part of the research expedition. Hopefully, some of them will consider a career in research one day, because we bring back more than science from the cruises: we bring back stories we hope will inspire future researchers.