Wonderseekers (Winchester Science Centre)

The sound of biodiversity

Project goals:

• Improve nature connectedness and science engagement for young children from an identified, currently underserved community
• Through a series of activities, the project will encourage children to stop and listen to various soundscapes within their local environment and be an active part of real-life research
• Develop and continually evaluate a new public engagement methodology and science communication tools for audiences who have not traditionally engaged

This is a one-year pathfinder project bringing together science communicators, academics and underserved audiences – a ‘community-based learning ecosystem’ – to develop a new approach to engaging young children with science and nature through sustainability research.

Work has begun with partners at the University of Surrey and a local primary school, although at a slightly slower pace than originally anticipated due to unexpected complexities and competing priorities for all three partners.

One example is the time-consuming work to ensure the collection and storage of data on young participants has been managed ethically, something that the Wonderseekers team acknowledges would be far harder without academic partners more well-versed in this work.

Initial workshops with the children and their teachers have been rewarding for all involved and have unsurprisingly shown creativity to be a very useful tool for helping children understand the world around them. As a result of this project, local children will have a greater connection to nature, understand the relevance of science, and have the skills to take action on biodiversity loss and climate change.

Learning from this pilot project will inform organisational change, with plans to facilitate the creation of equitable public engagement partnerships that deliver on the objectives of all partners and develop a blueprint for engaged research.

Image: Children stand outside a partner primary school in Winchester