Hands-on science activities for children aged from 6 to 10: perspectives from partners of the outreach project

The outreach project Scientia.com.pt has been implementing regularly hands-on activities for children from 6 to 10 years under the venture “Ciência p’ra que te quero”. The project aims to show that science is everywhere and in everyday life, alerting children to how science happensand to how we can use, learn and/ or adapt it to our daily routine. In 2018 “Ciência p ́ra que te quero” is conceived and designed on behalf of the “European Year of Cultural Heritage” and has sustainability and patrimony as the main themes. The addressed topics for the current year cover subjects such as “Is your house sustainable? Let’s save the Cultural Heritage”; “The sustainability of liquids that are also patrimony” or “Food – from sustainability to patrimony”,among others. Usually, a set of 5 – 6 simple and small hands-on experiments is performed monthly in a public library environment. Each session begins with a theoretical but informal presentation that allows to know children’s ́ perceptions, believes and knowledge about certain topics while explaining and/ or clarifying the important scientific concepts. Subsequently, volunteers start the hands-on activities with small groups of children. These volunteers, mostly undergraduate biology and biochemistry students, have an essential role in this project, once they are the key and the connection between science & scientists and the participating children. At the end of each session, children and volunteers are asked to fill a questionnaire regarding their opinion about the session, which gives useful information that can lead to changes and improvements in further activities. This work aims to show another perspective of the “Ciência p ́ra que te quero” project, namely the point of view of (i) the volunteer PhD science student that accepted to make and present the topics during each session presentation, (ii) the volunteer students that conducted the practical activities, (iii) the project mentors, (iv) the library staff and also the (v) feedback from the children engaged in the activities as well as from their parents. Science communication is getting more and more importance nowadays as the media use loads of unfiltered and untreated information, and shows therefore unreal or non-understandable information to a non-conscientious public. Overall, the team feels that showing science to children with hands-on activities is a way of approaching important and current subjects in a pleasurable, appellative and efficient manner, making children more aware of their surroundings.