Curiosity Live 2019
The SLDO Team were delighted to return to Glasgow Science Centre’s Curiosity Live event for families and schools, held on 14th March 2019. The event brought together researchers in Science, Technology Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) to share the exciting research happening in Glasgow across universities and industry. Observatory team members Rhiann McLean and Gillian Smith headed to the Science Centre to introduce the important work being undertaken at the Observatory to school pupils and the public.
The Keys to life board game, which was developed in collaboration with People First Scotland, allows people to journey through important aspects of a person’s life, such as education, socialising in the community or in healthcare, and encourages the player to see how people with learning disabilities experience challenges and opportunities across their life journeys. The game was designed to be a fun, learning tool to support public engagement and to facilitate conversations about the lives of people with learning disabilities. We hoped to inspire children and families about the importance of communities, inclusivity and how to think creatively about solutions to the barriers which people with learning disabilities face in their health and social lives. The event attracted many primary schools from across Glasgow. Lots of excited young pupils interacted with our game enthusiastically, and we received some very positive feedback.
“It was fun and interesting… Very educating! I loved it.”
We believe that engaging with children and young people is extremely valuable in building healthy communities, improving lives and challenging negative attitudes toward people with learning disabilities. The event was a great chance for young people, teachers and parents to learn about the daily lived experiences of people with learning disabilities. We also had discussions with pupils about our ongoing research and why it is so important.
We were very proud represent the diverse world-leading research that is being done at Glasgow University. To those of you who we met on the day– thank you for coming along and learning with us. We look forward to seeing you at the next Curiosity Live event! Follow us on twitter at @ScotLDO, to keep up to date.