We spoke to María Pin Nó, Falling Walls Engage Winner 2019, about her project and how the Falling Walls Engage Pitches helped her facilitate the contact to other projects.
What is your project about?
Our project “Science-me a Story” is a contest of scientific stories for kids. Adults participate in the contest writing stories containing scientific content (i.e. explaining the scientific method, the everyday life of a scientist, a discovery, an invention or a scientific topic) for primary school children. There are two categories: Spanish and English, and participants can send their texts from all over the world. This makes the initiative bring knowledge from all over the world. The stories are published online for free so kids can read them and schools can use them.
What made you start this project and how did Falling Walls Engage and its community contribute to the further development of your project?
This project started within the Spanish Researchers in the UK society. It is still part of it. The society has always had outreach activities, but it did not have one which would help researchers engage children. With this initiative we reach two different publics in different ways. We wanted to reach children through storytelling because it helps remember facts, it is engaging and fun, and it is not common to see activities using “fairy tales” to teach science.
We also wanted the science to be accurate, and having researchers participate was the way to do it. Some researchers are not comfortable doing outreach at the beginning. This initiative helps the researchers do the engagement from the comfort of their home. Falling Walls Engage, first of all, gave us visibility. Participating in such a prestigious initiative put us in the spotlight. It also helped us enter a community of Science Engagers and showed us how other people are communicating.