Our priority is that through this project all project partners will be collaborating with the youth workers and with the youth to engage them in informal education in relation to STEAM and science communication. Moreover, sharing the knowledge and experiences would enhance the projects' outputs; namely the interactive resource including a high quality video of a science show, and public speaking/ debate skills sets. Youth participation strengthens personal and social development, provides expertise for youth programmes and services, and promotes a more democratic society. In the context of complex inter-generational challenges such as climate change and sustainable development, it is increasingly important for scientists and policy-makers to actively engage with and support the meaningful participation of youth in policy and decision-making. Art, theatre and storytelling will be used as media for youth upskilling and engagement. The first phase of the project will involve a triangulation research with youth and the surrounding communities and a training programme by a well established cultural organisation in which together with the youth entity will provide a comprehensive upskilling programme for science communicators on collaborating with youth. Using the research and the training through several matchmaking sessions youth workers, science communicators, artists and the youth will work together to produce the interactive resource. Transnational meetings will be used for the science centres, youth agency and the artistic organisation to monitor progress and plan ahead. Upon its completion the interactive resource will be presented during the three non formal multiplier events named Youth Science Cafes. During these multiplier events youth will be actively involved in their organisation and will also actively participate in the science show and science cafe. These multiplier events will be targeting more youths through the participation from the surrounding communities. Through these cafes, youths are presented with the opportunity to speak about their involvement in informal education; in connection to science communication and STEAM subjects. Furthermore, the interactive resource would be freely available to the public on the Websites of science centres. The innovative aspect of this project is that the science show would be developed on the basis of research conducted as part of this project in collaboration with the Youth Agency, involving the youths. Further more, a concluding conference would be held in Malta bringing together representatives from stakeholders in non formal education, science communication, youth work, youths and the art sectors. The conference will enable sharing of best practices and experiences, dissemination of the project outputs through the active involvement of the youths and specific workshops.
With the involvement and cooperation within the five project partners the objectives listed at application stage were all successfully achieved. The objectives attained were as follows: - Promoting youth engagement and youth development: Promoting effective youth development requires involving and motivating young people. Youth must be actively involved in programs and thoroughly engaged. Their involvement should be ongoing, and they should be able to apply the knowledge and understanding they have received in the program to their larger communities. - An increase in awareness in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) fields: Nowadays we are hearing so much about STEM careers, however a number of youths are not aware of what these refer to. This project made it possible for the youths to become exposed to these fields through the three interactive resources developed by the science centers. Through the science café sessions, different aspects of STEAM fields were discussed among the youths together with youth workers and professionals in the field of STEAM. - There will be more promotion of non formal education and learning among youths and science centers: Science centers provide the required environment for non formal learning, providing a flexible, responsive education that is better suited to the unique circumstances of these groups. - Youth will be further inspired to take up STEAM subjects in the education and related careers: With increased exposure to STEAM subjects and their importance in today's, youths are more likely to choose STEM subjects and further develop their future careers. - Youth members of the surrounding communities will be more involved in and with science, technology, art and innovation: the interactive activities developed were developed with the input of local youths through surveys and focus groups - To bring out the artistic factor in communicating Science through Storytelling activities: The three interactive outputs have been integrated with various artistic forms, and this is highly recommendable with non formal learning. In addition to these objectives, youths were also encouraged the promotion of STEAM disciplines and associating the museum with Art topics and artistic practices implying transversal learnings that have a high value for the youths in their future. The outputs created and delivered gave the opportunity to reflect about contemporary and philosophical themes, such as the future of science, technology, including robots and artificial intelligence, which are key to the development and the promotion of critical thinking of young people.
Since the opening of our Science Centre, we have noticed that youths were the least category of audience that has visited our centre, when compared to other visitors categories in the past 6 years. This trend in youth visitors is not just a scenario found only in Malta, but this is also common issue found in centers all around Europe. Here at Esplora our vision is to cultivate a culture of scientific curiosity and creativity, and this is not limited to any particular category of visitors. For this reason, we wanted to create something specifically for youths in order to cultivate a culture of scientific curiosity and creativity. Our objective was to develop an output which brings together science, emerging technology and art; three fields which are hugely considered separate. In order to create an effective resource, we have joined forces together with another two science centres; NEMO in the Netherlands and CosmoCaixa in Spain, to develop a non formal interactive resource which specifically targets youths. With the involvement of Malta's National Youth Agency; Aġenzija Żgħażagħ and Inizjamed, an artistic and educational organistion, we were able to work with youths and assist us in the development of the interactive output which would then be done with the youths at each science centre. With guidance of the Aġenzija Żgħażagħ they have guided us to focused specifically on youths between 16 to 24 years, which subsequently these ages were the age groups we had the least amount of visitors. Throughout this project, we have delved deeper in the reasons why science centres are not much frequented by youths between the ages of 16 to 24 years. Research was done in a triangulation format, meaning that research is done by using more than one method to collect data on the same topic. In the course of this research the we have made use of the following methods to collect data: - Literature Review - Focus groups - Social media youth survey questionnaire In addition to research, training events were also organised from Inizjamed, and offered to the rest of the partner representatives. These training sessions consisted of various group workshops and discussions on how the arts could be intertwined with science communication and technological aspects, and therefore educate through non formal learning. Following the training events, given that there is a noticeable shift in the mindset and education between teens of 16 years and young adults of 24 years, after consulting with the partners and EUPA, we agreed that in order to better reach the youths, and for our activity to specifically address particular age groups. This meant that instead of developing one interactive resource, we would instead develop three interactive resources, which would then be shared among the three centres, and be accessed freely by the youths and those interested. Therefore, it was agreed that each science centre will focus on specific age groups as below: - Esplora Interactive Science Centre: 20 to 24 years - CosmoCaixa: 16 to 18 years - NEMO Science Centre: 18 to 20 years In addition, four multiplier events were organised by the three Science centres: E1: Science Café in Malta E2: Science Café in Netherlands E3: Science Café in Spain E4: Concluding Seminar in Malta Through these multiplier events helped us reach to our youth visitors and strengthened our connection between the world of STEM and youths. They added more value to the results achieved in this project, and the voice of the youth was greatly empowered and appreciated by the community.