Activity 3

The structure of Activity 3 appealed to me more than activity 2; I was looking forward to having more creative freedom, and was also intrigued to plan an activity for a non-child audience. Despite enjoying the fact we could decide for ourselves, I was aware that this freedom could potentially lead to stagnation due to choice overload[19]. But overall, having completed our initial plans for Activity 2, I was confident in our abilities as a group to come up with an original idea, and audience, for Activity 3.

We came to a decision about our audience, the WI, and the nature of our activity, an interactive talk, fairly quickly- which put my initial reservations to rest. However, I did have slight nagging concerns that the idea for our activity, an interactive talk, wasn’t the most original. Despite these concerns, I was optimistic about our activity- mostly because I thought our planned audience, the WI, was quite unique. So when Leigh found out the WI was fully booked, I started to feel worried. I was really set on the WI as an audience, and we didn’t have long to find a replacement. Leigh went about contacting other WI’s and similar groups to see if they would host us, but as time went on I had a growing sense of panic that we would never find an audience in time.

When Leigh finally got a confirmation from Weston Women’s Solo Club I was relieved, although slightly stressed as the talk was scheduled for far sooner than any of us had expected. In the week leading up to the activity there were two main issues playing on my mind. Firstly I was nervous that our audience wouldn’t actually be that interested in the content of the talk, as apparently whilst on the phone to Leigh, Bridgid (the organiser of the club events) was initially hesitant about having a Physics-related talk. The club is for divorced or widowed women, and I was aware that many of them looked forward to it as an opportunity to chat and catch up. Seeing as they valued this time, I worried that we could potentially ruin it by giving them a 'science-lesson' which they wouldn’t engage with. Secondly, after reading an online article[20], I was apprehensive that, as a man, giving a talk to an all-female audience about achievements of women in science could be viewed as mansplaining.

The talk itself went far better than I ever expected, and I was honestly really surprised at the amount of attention we were being given. My initial concerns that we would be wasting their time disappeared, they were clearly actually really interested in what we had to say. After the talk, the chat we had with them was really enjoyable- and I was really encouraged by the nature of the conversation and questions they were asking us.

As we left, I felt extremely positive about the day, as we had achieved our aims- but what stayed with me was the profound sense of surprise at how much our audience appeared to enjoy and engage with the talk. We were aiming to challenge preconceptions of women in physics, but I also felt that this activity may have challenged some preconceptions I had about people of retirement age. There is a stereotype of elders as close-minded and disengaged[21] - and whilst I might may not have previously been aware of it, I feel this may have been a preconception that I held to a certain extent. My experience of how friendly, engaged and curious our audience were surprised me, and considering this, it’s made me realise my own ability to make assumptions about people. This is something I will try to take on, and be more aware of in a wider context.

Reflections on the Course-->