Sharing chemistry with Māori students

Developing a new generation of scientist communicators through effective public outreach

“…A research project by a local school principal shows that long-term relationships with communities build increased trust in the scientists and increased awareness of science within the wider community 30 . However, such engagements require resources and, more importantly, regular time commitments which many staff within a research-focused environment cannot afford 18 , 21 , 39 – 42 . We believe that the system described here, with a centralized coordinator and student volunteers, overcomes some of these issues.…”

“…Therefore, a single activity needs to be amenable to a range of ages, abilities, and requirements. Some of these activities have been used with international partners and prove to be equally effective in engaging school pupils across language and culture barriers 39 – 41 .…”

Student outcomes from a long‐term outreach program working in rural and low‐income schools

“…One initiative around this is a program called Science Wānanga (a Māori conception of a learning approach); teams of scientists from across the Division of Sciences spend 3 days on a marae (a traditional Māori meeting place) working with groups of ~50 local school children (Figure 3). [ 23 ]…”

“…One initiative around this is a program called Science W ananga (a M aori conception of a learning approach); teams of scientists from across the Division of Sciences spend 3 days on a marae (a traditional M aori meeting place) working with groups of 50 local school children (Figure 3). [23] F I G U R E 1 Using dry ice as a "hook" for a session about states of matter F I G U R E 2 Proud young chemists and some dilution series created to explore using scales to measure-that is, colorimetry.…”

“…Some of these activities have been used with our international outreach partners and have proven to be equally effective in engaging school pupils across language and culture barriers. [23,24,26]…”