The Departmental retreat was a great opportunity for us to put up and test an ambitious program of Science Outreach.
We believe outreaching to the public is essential to fill the widening gap between scientists and the population as the recent sanitary crisis highlighted.
We devised a 3-parts program aimed at reaching out to 3 distinct populations.
Primary Schools
In two primary schools of Pornichet (Ecole du Pouligou and Ecole Saint-Jean) we proposed the pupils, aged 6-10, to discover what Microbes are, what they do and how to treat them. In each classroom, two volunteers ( PhD student, Post-doc, engineer, research or PI) interacted in a very didactic and participative way with the children using a powerpoint presentation. Children were also able to see some microbes under the microscope. A first experience for most of them !
Before going back to our scientific program, we offered to all the pupils a booklet we created with some info, some drawing, and some masks to color and cut to play with or for the coming halloween!
Retirement houses
In retirement houses, 2 members of our department presented the life and achievements of Louis Pasteur and the Institut Pasteur to senior people.
Médiathèque
Finally, we organized a “ciné-discussion” at the médiathèque of Pornichet about the Gut Microbiota. This event was attended by nearly 50 people. Following the projection of themovie “le ventre, notre second cerveau”, a long exchange between the public and a researcher from the department (Thank you Martial !) took place. Find the video of the intervention here
All these activities were very successful and the various publics were really pleased ad positive about our actions. All our members were also highly satisfied by their participation.
This first, successful experience will be certainly followed by many others !
Altogether, 25 members of the department contributed to these action and made them very successful and enriching. moment. A big thanks to them all !
