Feedback on the Online Training by the Come Together Project: Supporting Science Communication on Climate Issues for Socially Excluded Adults

On October 15 and 22, the Come Together European project team organized a first online training session: two days dedicated to give to professionals the keys and tools to design science communication activities on climate issues, specifically targeting socially excluded adults.

A Diversity of Profiles and Perspectives

Twenty-five participants from the five partners’ countries (France, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and Italy) joined the training. They represented three main professional backgrounds: science communicators, researchers, and social workers. This diversity was a key strength of the training, fostering rich exchanges and constructive discussions through the confrontation of different perspectives.

The challenge was significant: delivering an online training in English (a non-native language for most participants), to a group of people who had never met and came from varying professional contexts.

Some take-away messages that participants would share about the training

A Well-Balanced Structure to Encourage Exchange and Learning

To meet this challenge, the Come Together team designed a balanced format combining theory, practice, and self-reflection:

• Informal sessions to encourage participants to connect and build relationships.
• Small group activities to ensure everyone had the opportunity to speak, share experiences, and discuss projects.
• Plenary sessions to deliver theoretical input and set the stage for deeper discussions.
• Individual moments for participants to reflect and process their learning, accompanied by a collaborative playlist created specifically for these self-reflection times (available ici).

Collaborative playlist for self-reflexion time during the training

Topics Covered

Over the two days, the training addressed central themes at the intersection of climate issues and social inclusion:

• Inclusion: role-playing exercises and expert interventions helped participants better understand the specific needs of socially excluded audiences.
• Climate issues: how to encourage audience to take in action ? How to manage emotions related to climate change ?
• Bridging the two: each session was designed to show how to incorporate climate issues into inclusive approaches.

To visualize the training process, check out our 2-days program below.

Why Was This First Training a Success?

The feedback from participants speaks volumes:

• Practical tools were explored, and some participants have already begun using them in their own projects.
• Participants gained confidence and legitimacy to design and facilitate communication activities on environmental issues for socially excluded audiences.
• Training materials (documents, slides, collaborative murals) were rated as highly useful for learning.
• 100% of participants agreed that this training increased their motivation to lead inclusive educational actions on climate and environmental topics.

A Co-Created Training with Hub members

This training was developed through the collaborative efforts of the Come Together hubs across the five partner countries, who shared their needs and expertise over the past six months. A heartfelt thank you to them for their contributions!

What’s Next?

The feedback gathered during this first edition will help enrich the next step of the project: the organization of a national training session in each country. Stay tuned for this opportunity to further advance inclusive science communication on climate issues!

 

Co-creation workshop in Milano

The project partners gathered in Milan for a three-day co-creation workshop (July 16-18) hosted by the project's lead partner, the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology. We were joined by three hub members coming from Austria, Germany and France. The meeting was centered on designing the initial version of the international training program for scientists, NGO workers and educators who will conduct educational activities with and for the project's target groups.

Project team at the beginning of the meeting. 

Catherine Oualian, the trainer at Universcience,
facilitates the meeting.

Catherine Oualian and Fannie Le Floch, two excellent facilitators from our French partner, the science center Universcience, carefully prepared and conducted the co-creation workshop, which included lectures, discussions, and varied activities. We heard from three outstanding speakers who provided insight into the intertwining of two project topics: climate change and the engagement of various vulnerable social groups in these debates. 

Sociologist Clémence Perronnet introduced the concept of inclusion and emphasized that there are numerous factors that contribute to social group discrimination, such as race, gender, age, religion, class, and disability, that must be taken into account when planning educational activities.

Lorenzo De Vidovich, also a sociologist, addressed the question of social justice in energy use, focusing on the relationship between the social and environmental crises, as well as how energy transition initiatives may affect marginalized socioeconomic groups and geographical peripheries. 

Sandi Horvat, journalist, writer and representative of the Roma Academic Club from Slovenia, provided a very comprehensive overview of crucial factors to take into account when working with and for underprivileged communities.

We also learned about the Green Ethics project, which is being run by the University of Turin's Social and Community Theatre Center and the university itself. First, Alberto Pagliarino provided us with the theoretical framework of their work, and then we attempted some of the community theater's approaches ourselves, guided by Maurizio Bertolini.

Community Theatre Center's workshop with Maurizio Bertolini.

We also served as an audience for activities created and implemented in our respective organizations which benefited us in developing the international training program. Sarah Klemisch from the Ethnological Museum Berlin introduced us to the Speculative Design through imagining the future of our city and its resources. Balduin Landl and Constantin Holmer from the ScienceCenter-Network have tested the discussion game, as well as conducted a series of experiments to teach us about CO2. Fabrizio Stavola of the National Museum of Science and Technology "Leonardo da Vinci" encouraged us to consider the complexities of the climate crisis by investigating the mechanisms of toy operation. Katarina Nahtigal and Tina Palaić from the Slovene Ethographic Museum presented the museum program of personal exhibitions created by various individuals and social groups, with a focus on collaboration with Roma communities in Slovenia.

         

Learning how the toy mechanisms work.

                          

CO2 experiments.

The majority of the meeting was spent planning the international training program, which we devised based on our professional knowledge and experience, as well as the skills, needs, wishes, and interests of the national hub members. We defined the critical themes we want to explore in the training, determined the pedagogical objective of the selected training sequences, and suggested a teaching techniques to achieve the goal. 

Working on the selected training sequences.

The two-day international training will be aimed at scientists, NGO workers, and educators who will be conducting educational activities with and for the project's target groups. It will be done online on October 15th and 22nd.

Dear hub members, thank you once again for your dedication and efforts. We look forward to continuing this journey together and making a meaningful impact.

First hub meeting in Vienna took place!

The first hub meeting organized by the ScienceCenter-Netzwerk in Vienna, Austria, took place on 10th of April 2024 in the Wissens°raum, our very own ScienceCenter in the 5th district of Vienna:

For our first hub meeting, we tried to bring together people with various backgrounds and collaboratively work on our understanding of socially inclusive cliamte education for adults. The main focus of the first hub meeting was to get to know each other, explore relevant topics and develop a common understanding of how we want to work together. Therefore, everyone introduced themselves with an object from the Wissens°raum that they found interesting and that they felt some connection to. Because we did not only want to call our hub meetings "hub meetings" we decided to give this exciting process a name, some colour, and a logo):

The Klima-Wissens°werkstatt is a process, workplace and hub at the same time. Therefore, we hope to be able to serve as a platform for socially inclusive climate education for adults for various interested people and institutions that want to work together with us. For this purpose, we noted down our thoughts and ideas on a paper roll on the floor where important topics, a timeline with possible specific foci, and other relevant information were written down. To complement the analog format of the paper roll, after the hub meeting, we translated our ideas and findings into a digital version, a mural which is open to all participants and interested people. In the next weeks, we will have further meetings to deepen our knowledge, experiment with different formats and work on ways of doing socially inclusive climate education for adults.

Come together for socially inclusive climate education for adults.

We are very much looking forward to this exciting process!

We meet every week Wednesday 3:30-6:30pm in the Wissens°raum.

First hub meeting in Milan!

                  

On Monday, April 15th, the first hub meeting took place in Milan, in the Sala Biancamano of the National Museum of Science and Technology!

45 people, from various backgrounds (education, research, inclusion, policy making, art) participated in the meeting and started to share their experiences and thoughs on the topics of climate change, adult education and inclusion.

The participants were involved in brainstorming, tinkering activities, and discussions about the goals to reach in inclusive science education, led by expert facilitators. 

The exchange was very enriching, both for Museum staff and for the participants. 

As Museum professionals we were impressed by the great interest toward the topics and the variety of actors. With a collaborative approach, we aim at putting together all the people interested in working for the same objective: a more inclusive climate change education for all.

We are very looking forward to the next meeting!

First hub meeting in Paris

The first hub meeting organized by Universcience is in full preparation! We can't wait for professionals from education, social work and research to cross-fertilise their questions and expertise.

The first discussion will take place in May, followed by a visit to the Urgence Climatique exhibition at the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie.

 

Coming soon: first hub meeting in Milan!

The first hub meeting organized by the National Museum of Science and Technology “Leonardo da Vinci” is coming up! 

The meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 15th, 2024, from 4.30pm to 6.30pm. The hub will welcome all those people who are interested in social inclusion, climate change education and in the development of dialogue activities between researchers and vulnerable populations. 

Hub participants will meet for the first time at MUST, get to know each other better and start to share their experiences, knowledge and ideas on the topics of climate change education and social inclusion. 

Date: April 15th, 2024

Time: 4.30pm -6.30pm

Address: Via Olona 6 bis, Milan.

Announcement: Project partners' first face-to-face meeting

After multiple online meetings, the project partners will finally get together in person!

We can't wait to talk about our experiences and, most importantly, about the planned activities for the project. The agenda includes a discussion of: the purpose, methodology, and results of hub meetings; the organization of trainings for scientists, researchers, museum staff, and other stakeholders to create educational programs about climate change. 

The meeting is scheduled for April 22nd and 23rd at the Berlin Ethnographic Museum.