Accesslab Workshop - Krowji 2017
Recent world events and concern over ‘fake news’ and ‘post-factualism’ have highlighted the difficulties encountered when trying to find trustworthy sources of information. The ability to judge the reliability of different sources of information is a skill that can be learned. The AccessLab project aims to improve access to and the judgement of information, through direct citizen-scientist pairings.
For this AccessLab workshop, we are focusing on people who are involved in making their communities better, whether that's through formal policy roles or grassroots activism. It is important that decisions made for/by communities are based on evidence, yet finding and judging the information to inform this work, particularly when it relates to sciences, can be a considerable challenge that is not readily taught.
Participating policy makers, councilors and activists will be able to request help with a topic that relates to science and is of interest personally or for their work – for example regarding a medical issue, renewable energy, human behaviour, farming or fishing, robotics or artificial intelligence. Through one-to-one working with the science researchers, we will provide an opportunity for participants to learn how to find sources of scientific information, and how to judge the reliability of these sources. Instead of focusing on the dissemination of subject-specific information, we will support participating councilors and activists in understanding how they can find reliable information on topics that are relevant to them.
AccessLab takes two parts:
22 Nov 2017 // 17:00-19:15 // Jubilee Warehouse, Penryn // Preparation Workshop for scientists - here we'll prepare for the main workshop, looking at how scientific research can be used more broadly, contributing to the content of the workshop and creating an event that can be easily rolled out to other places.
24 Nov 2017 // 10:00-16:00 // Studio 13, Krowji, Redruth // Main Workshop for policy makers, councillors, activists and scientists - here we'll give an introduction to scientific research, how science is funded, where scientific findings are published, including the open access movement. We'll explore a case study taking a media article, showing where to find the original source used in that article, how to identify who did the research, who funded the work, and basic indicators of reliability such as sample sizes and experimental design. In the afternoon, we'll be working in one-to-one pairs to co-research the councilors' and activists' topics of interest, with an emphasis on using peer-reviewed primary sources.
If you are interested in participating as a policy maker, councilor, activist or scientist, email us.
The events are free, and the locations are fully accessible for wheelchairs. Snacks for the first workshop and a full lunch for the second workshop are provided free, made by Hoon Kim of Sohn.
This event is funded by, and run in partnership with the British Science Association. This project was launched with funding from FEAST Cornwall. The FEAST programme is funded by Arts Council England in partnership with Cornwall Council.
