Chrissy Stokes
Head of Education & Outreach, The Physiological Society

Physiology is more than labs and textbooks, it is a community that benefits from a hub provided by The Physiological Society. Once run by the Members, The Society is now run for the Members by staff working at the Headquarters in London. Under the guidance and expertise of the Council of Trustees, staff ensure that The Society fulfils its Charitable Objects.

Formed in 2011, the Education and Outreach (E&O) Committee is one of six Committees that sit under Council.  The Committee meets formally twice per year, when proposals are considered, activities are assessed, issues are discussed and budgets are put together for consideration by Council. Together with Angela Breslin (Education Manager) and Anisha Tailor (Outreach Officer), I am responsible for ensuring the delivery of activities agreed by this Committee.

I was lucky enough to have a great Biology teacher who knew and understood the word ‘physiology’ and that you could actually study a degree in it. Many people aren’t so lucky: physiology is not a word commonly recognised by schools or the public. I see changing this as an opportunity to enhance delivery of The Society’s charitable objectives (www.physoc.org/our-charitable-objects).

Everyone, at some point in their lives, wonders how their body works – one of our 2015 Public Engagement Grant holders made a whole roadshow out of eating, pooing and sleeping (PN 102) – and this is a great hook to engage school students that might become our future membership, your collaborators and maybe one day President of The Society. The E&O team at The Society, guided by the E&O Committee, is here to facilitate and encourage this adventure of exploration.

I have been at The Society since 2007; it really is my ideal job – working with great people (staff and Members) with an important mission and lots of opportunity to learn along the way. And no two days are the same!

Each year, the team manages grant schemes, attends school and public engagement events, develops resources, runs competitions, and feeds into policy work surrounding schools and the curriculum. We also run the activities of: the Education and Teaching Theme and the History & Archives Committee. This list is by no means exhaustive, but I hope you get the picture of the breadth of our work. More information on specific activities can be found on our schools and outreach website – Understanding Life (www.understanding-life.org/) – and on The Society’s main website.

Although our work is broad, it is carefully considered and assessed by the E&O committee to ensure it continues to fulfil The Society’s strategic objectives, and has a positive impact on the progression of physiology and the wider scientific landscape Just this year, the committee is conducting a thorough review of our research grant scheme and techniques workshop funding. Light touch annual reviews/end of grant reviews for other activities will continue as usual. Results of such reviews, new activities and large scale projects are periodically reported to Council in the form of minutes and presentations – this ensures Society activities remain confluent and in line with the overall strategic objectives.

I thought it might be interesting to follow the life cycle of one of our schemes to see how decisions are made and new activities are implemented. I have selected one of The Society’s new-er schemes, that has been implemented since I began at The Society to illustrate this life cycle.

In 2011, the E&O Committee realised that reaching new audiences would be possible if science was delivered through non-traditional routes (not in an educational environment). Furthermore, by bringing together physiologists with expert communicators, all parties would benefit (the physiologists would learn from the communicators, the communicators would have access to new funding opportunities, and The Society’s funding would be well spent).

The Committee envisaged that these audiences would be distinct from those reached through the pre-existing Outreach Grant scheme, which was specifically designed for Members to deliver a small scale activity, usually within an educational environment – such as a school, university
or science fair.

The Committee agreed to commit funding through a new Public Engagement Grant scheme to support activities in 2012. In the first year, under the guidance of the Committee, the team worked closely with providers – such as ‘Bright Club’¹ and ‘I’m a Scientist Get Me Out of Here!’² – to develop strong proposals that would run as example activities. There was also a defined allocation of funding for additional proposals submitted by external providers. From 23 proposals, our first public engagement grant was funded (a project to develop interactive physiology workshops in schools). The high quality and quantity of proposals, coupled with the excellent evaluation reports received, convinced the E&O Committee to continue investing in the scheme. This year, 42 proposals were submitted for 6 available Public Engagements Grants; all the funding was allocated, and you can read more about the proposals on The Society’s website: www.physoc.org/public-events.

Many of the activities run by the E&O Committee are not delivered in isolation and, in some areas, collaboration with other like-minded organisations and other internal departments is beneficial. An example is the E&O Committee’s work on the status and valuation of teachers in Higher Education; this included a collaboration with the Policy Committee, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Society of Biology and the Heads of University Bioscience departments. A joint report was published, which can be downloaded from our website, and, following the recommendations of this report, the E&O Committee published the booklet ‘Recognising Teachers in the Life Sciences’ – a review of which can be found on Page 15.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the support of our Members; the team has met some great people in our quest to deliver all these activities, on time, fit for purpose and on budget.

If you have any feedback on the work of the E&O Committee, please contact me via email cstokes@physoc.org.

1 Bright Club is an evening joining together research and comedy. Academics (after some training form the Bright Club team and stand-up comics) take to the stage to share what they do with a friendly informal audience.
2 ‘I’m a Scientist Get me out of here’ is an online ‘X-factor’ style competition between scientists where students are the judges. Over a two week period five scientist are pitted against each other while students bombard them with questions about anything they want. Scientists are voted off one by one, with the students favourite winning £500 to communicate their work to the public.