Outreach activities supported by the RCPath Public Engagement Innovation Grant Scheme held at Museums Sheffield: Millennium Galleries have now been described within a wider study published in Access Microbiology (Duckett et al., 2021).

The events ‘The Horror Within' (2017) and ‘The Science of Science Fiction’ (2018), were designed and carried out by a group of academic lecturers, RCPath members, Biomedical Scientists, PhD and undergraduate students from Sheffield Hallam University and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, in collaboration with Museums Sheffield: Millennium Galleries. Our aim was to engage the wider public in integrated art and scientific activities.

We hoped that combining the arts and science would improve public understanding of current scientific topics whilst widening participation within the local community. Both evenings were Halloween-inspired and designed to engage with an adult audience in microbiology and molecular pathology, using key topics such as parasitic worms, malaria and antimicrobial resistance. 

A combined approach was taken to develop hands-on, arts-inspired activities to run throughout both experiences. Alongside a series of short talks such as ‘Poo Transplants, A Difficult Subject to Swallow’ and ‘Laboratory Horrors and Diagnostic Nightmares’ we provided a display of antique medical equipment; ghost tours of the old morgue; still life drawing workshops; performance artists in costumes; body painting of organs; vintage Space Invaders and Avengers pinball games; live pop-up sketching of visitors as superheroes; intelligent robots and B-movie sci-fi short film screenings.

Scientific activities utilised a variety of formats (stalls, crafts, microscopy and hands-on experiments). For example, the concept of the microbiome was introduced via a ‘make your own poo’ station where visitors made poo in artificial gastrointestinal tracts and a lightbox displaying agar-art using several selective and diagnostic agars with bacteria from different human microbiotas.

Both events recorded over 180 visitors and exit questionnaires showed an increase in perceived knowledge reported by participants after each event. Exit questionnaires showed an overwhelmingly positive response to the events. We were particularly pleased to note that a large proportion of participants had not visited a science-based event in the previous 12 months, highlighting the importance of event design in attracting groups that have not previously engaged in science outreach. Focus group research was carried out to determine longer term impact and showed the events were impactful on participants four months after the event. To find out more about our study read the full analysis.

We gratefully acknowledge the funding support from The Royal College of Pathologists’ Public Engagement Innovation Grant scheme which allowed the provision of this series of events and we look forward to developing this outreach work in the future.
 

Authors:

Dr Liz Allen PhD DipRCPath, Senior Lecturer in Biosciences and Chemistry, Sheffield Hallam University.

Dr Catherine Duckett PhD, Senior Lecturer in Biosciences and Chemistry, Sheffield Hallam University.

Dr Mel Lacey PhD, Senior Lecturer in Biosciences and Chemistry, Sheffield Hallam University.

Dr Katherine Rawlinson PhD SFHEA, Senior Lecturer in Biosciences and Chemistry, Sheffield Hallam University.

Dr Kate Hargreaves, MBChB, BMedSci, DTMH.

Duckett, C. J., Hargreaves, K. E., Rawson, K. M., Allen, K. E., Forbes, S., Rawlinson, K. E., Lacey, M. (2021) Nights at the museum: Integrated arts and microbiology public engagement events enhance understanding of science whilst increasing community diversity and inclusion. Access Microbiology, 3(5), 000231. doi:https://doi.org/10.1099/acmi.0.000231