2 - Going Virtual: Finding new ways to Engage Higher Education Students in a Participatory Project about Science

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown into disarray almost all spheres of human activity. Research is no exception. When labs and research centres closed, scientists were told to stay at home, scientific events were cancelled or postponed to an uncertain date and most scientific projects had to be put on hold or modified substantially.

This chapter concerns the adjustments and adaptations that have had to be made in one such project, Persist_EU, an international project aimed at bringing together European university students through the organization of participatory events in five cities. The participation of students should provide needed insights into knowledge, perceptions and opinions on science and how these can be changed by engaging and discussing controversial scientific topics.

According to the Flash Eurobarometer no. 239 (European Commission, 2008), European youth believe that interest in science is essential for future prosperity and scientific research should chiefly serve the development of knowledge. Young adults are actively involved with content created by scientists when it is presented in the new model, which involves two-way communication (Bauer et al, 2007) and sees the participants as stakeholders of science, encouraging active engagement (Hargittai et al, 2018). They are more likely to participate in scientific activities that have an interdisciplinary aim and engage with topics that have become popular in the twenty-first century, such as vaccines and climate change (Bauer, 2011).

This chapter describes how the project methodology was modified due to the containment strategy against contagion in two countries: Portugal and Germany. As face-to-face engagement was made impossible, the chapter focuses on the design and implementation of alternative approaches for recruiting and involving participants, and the adaptation of a live event to an online platform.

Since students have high levels of computer literacy (Salmon, 2003) and online research methodologies, such as survey and focus group, have been proliferating since the early 2000s (Turney and Pocknee, 2005), the project was able to develop a suitable new strategy. Furthermore, as Hargittai et al (2018) have affirmed, the interaction afforded by online platforms is particularly important for young audiences.