{"id":766,"date":"2025-02-27T08:24:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T08:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/cmc\/?p=766"},"modified":"2025-02-28T15:35:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T15:35:50","slug":"mindmasters-public-engagement-and-research-activities-in-museums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/cmc\/2025\/02\/27\/mindmasters-public-engagement-and-research-activities-in-museums\/","title":{"rendered":"MindMasters: public engagement and research activities in museums"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This blogpost is written by Dr Joanne Eaves.<\/em> Jo is a Vice Chancellor Independent Research Fellow in the Centre for Mathematical Cognition, Loughborough University. Jo\u2019s work focusses on the transition from primary school mathematics to secondary school mathematics. She has a particular interest in the transition from arithmetic to algebraic thinking, the role of patterns and executive functions in this transition, and flexibility with arithmetic. Please click on the link at the bottom of the blogpost to learn more about Jo\u2019s work. Edited by Dr Bethany Woollacott.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this blogpost Jo talks about a new public engagement initiative, MindMasters<\/em><\/strong>, that she developed at Green\u2019s Windmill and Science Centre (linked below). MindMasters gives children and their families an opportunity to learn about Loughborough University\u2019s research, and take part in live research studies. Here, Jo outlines the benefits that the initiative has brought to researchers, families and the Windmill to date, and emphasises the unique demographic that has been reached thus far. If you\u2019d like to get involved as a researcher or volunteer for a future event, do get in contact with Jo as families are very keen for the event to run again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Exterior of the MindMasters venue, Green’s Windmill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Interior of the MindMasters venue, Green’s Windmill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Background<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Recruiting participants for research studies is hard. Even recruiting from the general adult population with no exclusion criteria has its challenges: they don\u2019t notice recruitment adverts, they aren\u2019t interested, they don\u2019t have the time, they can\u2019t always get to testing settings. Take this to a less accessible population, school-aged children, and the problem becomes much larger. Not only does it require recruitment via the general adult population, but it also typically involves testing in school settings. Researchers frequently talk about the difficulties of getting ethical approval for conducting studies in schools, with opt-in consent resulting in a low response rate and opt-out consent being difficult to get ethical clearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even with ethical approval, there are additional challenges to recruiting children via schools. Getting a school to agree to host your study is an art more than a science: you need the right tone of email, that email to reach the right recipient (a receptionist, a teacher, a subject lead), and the email to be received at the right time (when staff are not too busy, currently interested in the topic, willing to respond, and not too close to the school holidays!). How on earth do we manage to run our research studies and reach the number of participants we require?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During my postdoc at the University of Nottingham, I had some wonderful experiences of engaging with the public about research such as Science in the Park<\/a>, and Summer Scientist week<\/a>. During such events, many children and their families wanted to participate in studies, appearing positive and enthusiastic about engaging with research. It seemed strange to me that there was no ideal way of reaching these families outside of these events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspired by Professor Lucy Cragg (my fantastic mentor, colleague and all-round genius), who organised these events alongside a public engagement team, when I moved to Loughborough (June 2024) I wanted to create something similar. In November 2024, I did just that. With the help of Oscar Hutton and Amy Jennison-Boyle (School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences), I piloted and launched MindMasters, a new 4-day public engagement event at Greens Windmill and Science Centre, Nottingham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MindMasters \u2013 what was it?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

MindMasters operated like a smaller-scale version of Summer Scientist Week, with 4 days of psychology activities and events for 6 \u2013 10 year-olds and their families. Including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3 research studies to participate in (if desired) about:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n