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Community of Practice for Outreach and WP Practitioners

Lead Institution: University of Exeter
Collaborating with: Bournemouth University, Plymouth University

Adopter Universities - Strengthening Community Links > Community Links - Loughborough

Through adoption of the Community of Practice for Outreach and WP Practitioners project, Loughborough University took the training and support materials provided to explore ways in which it could enhance its interaction with Snibston Discovery Museum through the development of new, collaborative outreach activities focusing on Maths.

3 events were held in the Spring term of 2012:

  • Maths & Fashion
  • Maths & the Environment  
  • Maths & Sport
Loughborough Outreach

Loughborough Outreach

The events that were held at Snibston were observed for their academic value to the students by Jan Parry (an education consultant), and for their value to the community partner by Kath Perry (Snibston's manager).

An outreach day was also held in conjunction with the National Space Centre; this was a very successful collaborative event, with both the University and Space Centre providing workshops.

At the bottom of this page, you can access a case study booklet which contains evaluations and learning from each of the above 6 outreach activities. 


Project Achievements

The project has resulted in the following significant achievements for Loughborough University:

  • Strengthened links with Snibston Discovery Museum, with trialling of 3 new Maths outreach activities
  • An outreach day held in conjunction with the National Space Centre
  • The recruitment of 6 student volunteers to held deliver outreach activities and who produced 2 brand new outreach presentations
  • Strengthened outreach evaluation processes
  • A dissemination event in June 2012 that drew together members of the local outreach community and the university to celebrate the project's success
Loughborough Outreach

Loughborough Outreach

The improved links with Snibston have led to the museum kindly allocating rooms to Loughborough so that they can run a summer series of Royal Institute Maths Masterclasses.

In the future, other STEM departments at Loughborough will become involved in evaluating and improving outreach activities; the School of Science at Loughborough University have embraced the idea and given a member of staff the task of recording all outreach work carried out by each department with the intention of rationalising and strengthening this work.


Case Study Booklet & Report

Please find below a case study booklet of Loughborough's outreach activities following which, is a report detailing their learning and engagement in the adopter project. Should you like to know more, feel free to contact Nicola Timson at n.a.timson@lboro.ac.uk.

Loughborough - Case Study Booklet

Loughborough - Project Report

Staff involved

Dr Barrie Cooper
Project lead, University of Exeter

Chloe Cunningham
University of Exeter

Christine Keenan
Bournemouth University

Claire Gray
Plymouth University

Dawn Evans
University of Exeter

Emma Stephenson
University of Exeter

Jane Rowe
University of Exeter

Mitch Berger
University of Exeter