Getting Feedback

We love getting out of the lab and talking to the public about our work, as do many scientists.  Doing outreach activities, such as public lectures or going into schools makes us think about the 'bigger picture' around our work. Something that is often out of our minds when we're bogged down in the day to day experiments.  We gain a lot from speaking with the public, hearing what they think of our work is great, especially when it's nearly always positive!

For all scientists doing outreach activities it's great to get feedback and very useful to get a clearer idea of whether our message has been understood. We find the following methods to be very effective and simple ways of getting feedback from almost any audience.

Getting Feedback

One of the simplest ways to get feedback from your audience is to have post-it notes to hand. Ask each person to write what they enjoyed, learned or would like to know more about on the post-it. Basically, get them to write anything, something, or even draw a picture.

You’ll be surprised to find which bits stick the most in their minds, and what things might need explaining in more detail. This works best when done immediately after the session.

Follow-up Feedback Cards

A similar method to above uses trigger words to get a response from participants.  One side or half of the card shows key words from the presentation or activity whilst the other has the simple instruction: chose one or two words and write or draw about them.

This can be done immediately after a session, or maybe used as a follow-up activity by the teacher soon after your visit.

To download our zebrafish 'word cloud' feedback card click here.

Constructive Criticism

It’s useful to get in touch with the leader of the group a few days later to get their opinion of how things went. If you’re going into a school chances are the children will be overwhelming positive about the experience, as it’s a break from the norm. The teacher might have more constructive feedback, such as whether an activity lasted too long or the intended message was understood and absorbed by the pupils. However, so far we have fantastically positive feedback from everyone.