University of Aarhus 2005
Full house at the Faculty of Science
People of all ages are interested in scientific topics. In recent years, the Faculty of Science has endeavoured to meet the population’s desire to know more about science – by initiatives such as employing Jens Holbech, Head of Communication.
By Jakob Kehlet
Between 250 and 500 mainly grey-haired people turned up last year and this spring for each of a series of evening lectures held by researchers from the Faculty of Science at the University of Aarhus. The first subject was “Einstein” and the next was “Water”.
“I must say I was surprised to see that so many people decided to brave the dark to come to our lectures. That tells me that there is no lack of interest in science, as you sometimes hear people say,” says Jens Holbech, who in the past three years has held the position as Head of Communication at the Faculty of Science – the first of his kind.
He was appointed because the faculty wished to make a dedicated effort to comply with legal requirements that define communication as an essential part of a university’s work.
Mr Holbech is a modest man, who does not wish to take all the credit for the large increase in communication activity experienced at the faculty.
“I try to come up with ideas for initiatives, but it would never have worked, of course, without the support of enthusiastic individuals at the faculty’s eight departments,” says Mr Holbech.
16,000 in the tent
Even he was surprised when he recently prepared a summary of communication activities at the Faculty of Science. A large number of new initiatives have been added, but there is still room for old favourites such as “Nature in the Tent”, which has been part of the Aarhus Festival for years. In 2005, 16,000 children, teachers and parents gained new insight into some of nature’s mysteries when they visited the tent in front of the Aarhus town hall.
Part of the work involved in communication is aimed at the general public – the lectures about water are one example. Another and equally important part of this communication involves creating an interest in science among teachers and students in primary schools and upper-secondary schools. For the latter group, the various departments organise “upper-secondary schoolteacher days”.
On a number of Fridays over the course of the year, upper-secondary schoolteachers of geography, biology, physics, mathematics and chemistry are invited to come and listen to what the university has to offer.
“The intention is, of course, to create a sound foundation for later recruitment of students among the teachers’ pupils, but the teachers also gain inspiration in the form of the latest research results within their field,” says Mr Holbech, who also stays in touch with the teachers via regular newsletters.
An average of 100 teachers participated in each of the five upper-secondary schoolteacher days.
In the course of 2006, the Department of Biological Sciences and the Department of Earth Sciences will for the first time organise a similar event for primary school teachers.
Students are also welcome
Primary school and upper-secondary school students are also welcome at the university. Upper-secondary school students can, for instance, come for a one-day visit together with their teacher to obtain information about what the Faculty of Science has to offer. Afterwards, they can attend a special lecture about a topic of interest – possibly followed by experiments in a laboratory. Every year, several thousand upper-secondary school students pay such visits to the university.
Students in the last year of upper-secondary school also have the option of getting work experience, where they are allowed to attend all classes relating to a chosen subject. The work experience lasts three days, and the lecturers “recreate” the way the very first lecture to new students is conducted in a specific subject. The first group doing work experience in February 2004 consisted of 104 students. The latest group in November 2005 had as many as 250 participants.
“This facility enables upper-secondary school students to see for themselves whether biology, for instance, is really what they want to study. They might find out that they are more interested in molecular biology. Or maybe science is not for them at all – if so, it is an important realisation for both the student and the university,” says Mr Holbech.
The university can also offer primary school students work experience periods of five days in five different subjects. This offer is part of a range of initiatives that the faculty makes available to the primary school sector.
“The idea came about because several researchers received requests along the lines of: ‘Can I get work experience as a chemist?’ When a researcher agreed, there was a lot of work involved in preparing the work experience, and when we looked at the issue, we concluded that it might be better to do work experience as a student instead of as a qualified biologist, chemist or microbiologist. In that way, we have been able to accommodate a much larger number of students – 200 in one week. The scheme has now been approved. I am convinced it will be especially beneficial to students interested in tertiary studies,” says Mr Holbech.
There are many more science initiatives than there is room to describe in this article, and Mr Holbech also admits that the faculty’s diary has been very full the last three years. The faculty has therefore now established a special communication committee consisting of himself and a representative of each of the eight departments.
“It has been a pleasure to launch so many initiatives, and I get a lot of support from the 1,300 staff and 3,500 students at the Faculty of Science,” says Mr Holbech.
The school students took their own photos during their period as science students, and kept photographic diaries of their work experience. They also gained work experience in unfamiliar subjects: “We were positively surprised by geology, which we’d previously dismissed as being boring and uninteresting. It actually ended up being one of the best days,” wrote Maiken and Charlotte from Overlund School in Viborg in their diary.