Outreach Award

This Award recognises the dedication of those who work to deliver outreach activities to local schools or the general public. Those volunteering see it as part of their role as a student to inform and educate on a multi-generational level and are actively involved in sharing discovery.

There is the possibility of awarding a Continued Excellence in Outreach Award at the judges’ discretion. This Award would recognise the same criteria as listed above but over a sustained period of time, and would be in addition to the Award for achievements of the 2020/21 academic year.

Does your society or someone you know work with local schools and organisations to provide educational opportunities for younger students, or organise events that engage the general public? Through school visits, public lectures, mentoring, exhibitions or workshops, our societies and students are fantastic ambassadors for the College.

Individuals, sub-committees and entire societies can be nominated for this Award.

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See an example of a great nomination:

Allan Dos Santos from the Energy Society won 2020's Outreach Award. Take a look at his nomination for inspiration:

Birmingham Energy Society set themselves the aim to educate young people about the energy industry, energy crisis and climate change, to inspire them to want to tackle these challenges. Spearheaded by Allan as the Society’s new Outreach Officer, he successfully motivated pupils at Bishop Challoner Catholic College through several activities over the year, trialling his outreach projects with Jenny Bateman. They gave presentations to upwards of 100 pupils exploring the current energy crisis and how they thought it could be resolved, before setting pupils a term-long project to research an energy-themed challenge and design an innovative solution. Allan also covered topics such as presentation skills, university life and careers to inspire his audience. This was very engaging for all involved and received nothing but positive feedback from staff and pupils. The project went so well that the Society has been invited to deliver the same activity to the next cohort of sixth formers. Allan’s hard work did not go unrecognised, helping to secure funding to scale up this outreach project into 20 or more schools next year. Allan has laid outreach foundations for the Society which will inspire young talent to tackle energy challenges for years to come.

Plus the Continued Excellence in Outreach Award was presented to AstroSoc for their successes over the years:

AstroSoc know that astronomy is an exciting way to introduce people to science and encourage questions about the Universe. 2020 was the third successive year they’ve held events for British Science Week to inspire school children in years 7 and 8. For the first time they included home-educated children, allowing the Society to further share their planetarium shows that reveal the grand beauty of the cosmos. This shows great perception of the principles of inclusivity and of bringing science to under-served communities. Several AstroSoc members also volunteered at the Celebrate 2020 event for Girlguiding Midlands where they performed planetarium shows to hundreds of teenage girls during the day. Outreach events of such amazing scale, especially aimed at girls, are invaluable to physics and wider STEM subjects. The Society also plays an essential part in Astronomy in the City, sharing their expertise on the night sky with 300 attendees at a time. Alongside this, their Tea, Talk and Telescope series continues to grow in popularity, allowing attendees to discuss cutting edge astronomy research. AstroSoc has a bursting outreach and engagement rosta and there’s already ambition from their incoming committee for further growth!

More strong examples can be found in the 2020 Shortlist brochure.