The fourth Friday in September has been designated Researchers’ Night by the European Commission. Throughout Europe activities are being organised to show how exciting research can be and that researchers are ordinary people with extraordinary jobs. The target group is the general public, especially young people. Activities include experiments, interactive activities, exhibitions, dialogue with researchers, Science Cafés, science shows, workshops and competitions.
Background
Researchers’ Night was arranged for the first time in 2005 around Europe and in a number of locations in Sweden: Science Extravaganza in Stockholm.
In 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, the Swedish events were organised under the name ForskarFredag (ResearcherFriday) and were coordinated by VA. Local events were arranged by universities or science centres in nine, eleven, fifteen, sixteen and twentytwo cities respectively, and attracted a total of 11,900, 10,600, 15,300, 18,600 and 19,700 visitors respectively.
In 2007, in addition to the local activities VA organised a joint webcast and a children’s drawing competition “Draw yourself as a researcher”. A sample of these drawings has been analysed by Lori Adams Chabay, Ph.D. Her analysis, conclusions and recommendations are presented in the report ”Myself as a researcher – an analysis of children’s images of”.
2008 a photo competition ”Portrait of a researcher” and an interactive web activity ”Click for the Climate” was developed. In addition to the local activities in 2009 VA organised a poster competition and a massexperiment where schools could measure the levels of carbon dioxide in their classrooms. In 2010 a massexperiment where the students analysed the acoustics of their classrooms was developed.
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