1. Communicator
SpecialSupplement:
ScienceCommunication
Autumn 2016
Outreach and the
Science Museum
At-Bristol dissections
case study
Statistics and surnames
Q&A with a science illustrator
Science is ageless

2. Communicator Autumn 2016 – Supplement
12 Learning
Science is ageless
How do you solve problems in a family group? Together? Does the junior school child
take charge or does the adult? Tom Briggs, answers these questions and more.
When I left teaching to become a
travelling museum STEM educator -
Outreach Officer with the Bletchley
Park Trust (or just “The Enigma Man”,
a moniker I’m not at all inclined
to discourage) - some things were
second nature. Devising and delivering
maths-focussed, engaging educational
sessions to secondary school students,
for example. That had been my bread and butter for seven
years. Other things, though, were new and scary, however.
Such as devising and delivering maths-focussed, engaging
educational sessions to primary school students, mixed
family groups, and - scariest of all - adults.
Roll up, roll up
Luckily for me the subjects my sessions are all rooted in -
cryptography and codebreaking - are subjects which most
people, regardless of age, have had similar experiences
with: none whatsoever. Or so they think. Delving a little
deeper it turns out that rather a lot of them have at least
attempted a crossword or a sudoku at some point, which
gives an easy route into the subject as puzzles appeal across
the generations. I regularly team up with my grandmother
to attack the crossword in her Sunday paper, and from
conversations with the people I work with on my travels it
appears that I’m far from being alone in engaging in such
intergenerational free-time problem solving. And isn’t all of
science rooted in solving problems?
So there’s an easy entry point for all age-groups. Yes, I’ve
only given an example from my field, but much of the appeal
of any area of science is its links with daily life for many
people: chemistry can excite us with the same whizzes and
bangs that drive us to movie theatres and fireworks displays;
physics can tell us how boomerangs work, pool balls interact
and skaters spin; and anything to do with space is just really,
really cool, as evidenced by Professor Brian Cox’s ever-
presence on our televisions, and The Sky at Night has been
running since the beginning of time itself. Take a trip to your
local bookshop and marvel at the “popular science” rack: a
whole section of bookshop just for us! But how on Earth do
you design an activity to get your point across for, say, adults
when you’re used to working with nine-year-olds?
I remember a phone call once in which I was asked “what
would you do differently for adults?” I responded with “well,
I’d probably do the same thing as I’d do for children, but a
bit easier.” I frantically tried to stuff the words back into my
mouth - what I said didn’t actually convey what I meant once
it had left the confines of my head. I found myself booked
to deliver a talk to a group of 250 farming professionals
attending a weekend conference. It was nothing to do with
their course, and was intended as something interesting and
hopefully entertaining to wind down from the day’s formal
talks and lectures. This was my first exclusively adult-
attended gig and I got pretty stressed out trying to decide
what to do for them having had precisely no prior experience
delivering to grown-ups. In the end, rather than continuing
and failing to reinvent the wheel I just took one of the
sessions I’d developed for Key Stage 3 groups (ages 11-14),
adjusting the language slightly and tweaking my presentation
style (but less than you might think). It had a structure based
on the historical development of my subject, punctuated with
a few activities and demonstrations. I was slightly worried
about trying to make them do stuff - adults just want to be
talked at, don’t they? Not true, it turns out: It’s a bit tougher
to get them involved initially, but once they’ve warmed up
to the idea of this event being more than just a stuffy guy
waffling at the front then, in every experience I’ve had to
date, it flies.
TomBriggs
© Shaun Armstrong/Mubsta.com Enigma keyboard © T. Briggs
Science miscommunication: Five ideas to ditch right now
1. Adults just want to be talked at and must on no
account get involved
2. There’s some sort of correlation between age and
cleverness
3. You can’t tell children the clever bits
4. You can’t tell adults the fun bits
5. “Fun” and “educational” are necessarily different things

3. Communicator Autumn 2016 – Supplement
13
Tom Briggs is Education Manager with the Bletchley Park Trust, a
role he acquired after nearly seven years as a qualified mathematics
teacher. He has spent much of his time with the Bletchley Park
Trust travelling the country with a real, working Enigma machine,
developing and delivering codebreaking workshops, talks and
sessions to a variety of audiences.
E: tbriggs@bletchleypark.org.uk
W: www.bletchleypark.org.uk/edu
Age is just a number
People love doing science. That is, people love finding out
that they can do science. And that is people rather than
children. The whole “same thing for adults as for children,
but easier,” thing isn’t strictly speaking true, but it can be a
helpful mnemonic. The reality, as always, is much deeper: As
children we spend all day every day at school jumping from
lesson to lesson in which we start off knowing practically
nothing. We’re used to not knowing things so it’s less scary
to be confronted with a broad spectrum of new stuff and
being asked to get involved. Kids can often plunge right in
without fear of losing face in front of their peers if they can’t
immediately leap to the “right” answer. As adults, though, we
tend to spend our working lives delving ever deeper into an
increasingly narrow field so when confronted with something
truly new and different it can make us uncomfortable - we’re
adults now, and we’re supposed to know everything, right?
Part of the beauty of science outreach education is its role in
reminding people that there’s always new stuff to learn and
that continuing to find things you don’t yet know about is a
wonderful thing.
Families are the best. I’ve been lucky enough to take part
in a few “Astonishing Family Science Weekends” at a well-
known series of holiday resorts that have been a staple of
British family holidays for generations (Am I allowed to
say “Butlin’s”?). The fact that such an institution is even
considering such a theme to drum up extra custom for some
of their off-peak weekends says a lot about the changing
face of science education. Families can take part in a variety
of activities provided by the likes of the Science Museum,
National Space Centre, Aardman Animations, and even some
students from the University of Plymouth with a paddling
pool full of custard.
I’m there representing Bletchley Park, and around 40
people per session turn up in family groups to solve a host of
challenges which eventually provides the winning group with
the code to a briefcase, within which is a prize. The nature
of the activity is such that I get to observe what families
are doing and how they react to the challenges. Invariably,
it’s the primary-school-age members of each group who get
stuck-in first, with parents taking the stance that “family
workshop” means “it’s for the children”. Grandparents,
however, are straight in with the kids, and eventually those
generations in the middle can’t deny their inquisitiveness
any longer and start to join in too. I hear similar things from
those providing other activities at the event: this is one of
the best demonstrations I’ve ever experienced that science
truly is ageless, with multiple generations of the same family
digging into science- themed activities as a unit. Everybody’s
learning; everybody’s doing; everybody’s enjoying science.
The bottom line
The structure of the team formed by each family is
interesting, too. I’ve lost count of the times a parent in the
winning family has approached me after the session and said
something like “we [mum and dad] didn’t have a clue what
to do, but [nine-year-old] Jenny figured it out and taught us!”
Adults don’t know everything, and there’s still new stuff to
find out at all stages of life: learning doesn’t need to stop,
ever. This is a healthy and important lesson for both adults
and children to be reminded of, and as science educators we
are uniquely placed to drive this message home, in the most
fun and engaging ways imaginable.
I’ve made a point of finishing each of these sessions with “I
hope you’ve enjoyed this activity,” which is always met with
mumbles - occasionally cheers - of assent; and then “I’d like
to also point out that you’re on holiday and you’ve spent the
last forty-five minutes doing
maths.” Cue a bit of laughter
and hopefully the tiniest
seed of an idea that maybe
maths, science, and learning
in general aren’t just things
we leave behind when exiting
the school gates, but that we
can continue to explore for the
rest of our lives.
The bottom line, for me as a
science communicator, is that
we have one job to do. That job is not to convey facts, though
they can be interesting. It’s not to teach particular topics or
subjects, techniques or processes, though they can add to the
fun. It’s simply to inspire. Our job is to inspire our audiences
to delve a little deeper, regardless of age, because science
truly is ageless. C
Tom’sTopTip #1: Activities are not just for kids!
Give your audience something to do - a quiz, a challenge,
a puzzle, a discussion point. This could be something you
give out or display as they’re arriving and settling - that
way you give them the confidence to take part and they’ll
be engaged before you even open your mouth.
Tom’sTopTip #2: Laughter is good at any age!
Anecdotes abound, and there is a plethora of quirky
personalities to call on for any subject you may find
yourself presenting. Find them, and use them! We all like
a giggle and a bit of humour gets everyone involved as
well as providing light relief during tough topics.
Tom’sTopTip #3:Why should I care?
Show everyone how your content fits into their lives.
There are links, whatever your subject and whoever your
audience, or they wouldn’t have been inspired to book
you in the first place!
Tom’sTopTip #4: Everyone loves a story!
The twists and turns of scientific endeavour, and the
characters who played their part in them, are part of what
makes our scientific journeys so engaging for all ages.
Our job is to inspire
our audiences to
delve a little deeper,
regardless of age,
because science is
truly ageless