Curiosity in Action: Youth Group Application Guidelines

Curiosity in Action is a two-year programme to explore the impact of STEM in youth work funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). We will be pairing youth groups across Scotland with a scientist-in-residence involved in STFC research in a collaborative action research process. Together they will trial activities, explore approaches to discover what works well and understand the impact this work has on young people.

These guidelines provide information for youth groups interested in applying to be matched with a scientist and being part of the action research.

If you are an STFC scientist interested in being matched with a youth group, please fill out this expression of interest form.

We are looking to work with a range of experiences in delivering STEM activities and actively encourage applications from youth groups without any experience in delivering STEM activities before as well as those who do.

Supported groups will be enabled to connect and develop a collaborative project with a scientist-in-residence. Science Ceilidh will help you connect and match with a relevant STFC scientist to collaborate with.

You may not have done this type of project and we want this to be an accessible learning experience for the youth groups and researchers involved. There is support available throughout the whole process, including the matching with scientists, as well as during the delivery of the project itself.

If you are interested and have any questions that aren’t answered in these guidelines, or if you require information in different formats, please get in touch at katie@scienceceilidh.com.

Apply here

Download a pdf version of the guidelines here.

Click below to skip to the following sections:

1. What support is available?

You'll be paired with a scientist-in-residence and supported to develop and co-deliver STEM-themed activities together from October 2024 to June 2025.
You'll have full support and training to be part of the action research process and be a named contributor to the collective evidence that is developed.
You'll work closely with the other youth groups and scientists involved in the project to share learning including an in-person kick-off in October 2024 and online meetings.
You'll be provided with a contribution of £2000 to support your time commitment and you'll have all your wider expenses (including for session materials) covered

2. Who are we looking for?

If you are a Youthworker and/or Community Learning and Development (CLD) practitioner already working with a youth group based in Scotland of any age…
…and interested in partnering with a scientist-in-residence to use STEM as a youth development tool and helping develop the evidence around this collaborative between October 2024 and June 2025

Then you are eligible to apply to be part of the Curiosity In Action programme.

We are looking to work with a diverse range of youth groups representing a wide range of different communities, ages, geographies, themes and experiences. “Uniformed” groups such as Guides, Scouts and Boys and Girls Brigade are also welcome to apply.

We are particularly keen to support the involvement of youth groups including young people who are underrepresented in STEM. This could include through gender, race and ethnic background, Disability, sexuality, care experience and/or responsibilities and/or those who face disadvantage socioeconomically. This can include those living in postcodes who are in the highest 40% most “deprived” on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) or rurality.

This is a non-exhaustive list and we appreciate that these barriers intersect and may not be how groups self-identify. In the application, we welcome you to describe the group in the language they use themselves.

We are looking to work with both youth workers and youth groups who have not yet explicitly used STEM in their activities as well as those who have,

3. How will groups work with the “scientist-in-residence”?

We will be pairing each youth group with a "scientist-in-residence" who is involved in STFC science*. You will partner together for around 9 months (from October 2024 to June 2025) giving time for the scientist to get to know the groups and co-develop and deliver STEM inspired activities together.

The needs and interests of your youth group will be different, and so there will be no “one-size fits all” for how this will look and there is full support provided to develop and tailor activity ideas and try different approaches with a focus on how this can support the young people's confidence, resilience and wellbeing.

You do not need an existing relationship with a scientist already. If you are selected, you will be supported and matched with a scientist in September 2024. In some cases, the scientist may not necessarily be local and so specific visits might be organised throughout the time, and other digital tools approaches can be used to support the activities.

We hope the scientists can bring their enthusiasm for STEM to the group and in turn, the scientist will learn more about a youth-centred approach from the youth worker.

We will also work with you both to ensure the involvement of the scientist is in keeping with your own safeguarding policies. If you're a STFC scientist who is interested, you can register an Expression of Interest here.

What is STFC Science?

STFC science (research funded by the Science, Technology and Facilities Council) is broad - it's the science of the really big and the really small. By really big, we mean space, astrophysics and what our place is in the universe. It's also related to earth observation like climate science and food production. By really small, we mean particle physics and that can ties into things like medical imaging and health sciences. If you're matched with a scientist, you'll work together with your youth group to pick relevant topics and take a wider curiosity-based exploratory approach. You don’t need any previous experience of STFC science, though it’s helpful.

4. What type of activity/project could you run?

Don’t worry if you’re not sure what this could be yet! Projects and activities delivered will be collaboratively developed between the youth groups and their scientist-in-residence with support from the Science Ceilidh team so there is time to develop this if you are selected.

Each partnership will look different and be tailored to your specific group and needs. We anticipate in most cases these will be embedded within your existing group activities (rather than establishing a new STEM club for example) and the frequency of the activities and delivery will depend on what feels most appropriate.

We will be meeting as a group regularly to provide and share ideas and resources inspired from STFC and feedback from the youth groups which you can deliver as part of the project. You will then work with your scientist-in-residence to tailor them to your groups and also to the scientists' own experience.

Some of these activities will be developed into resources that will be shared to the wider sector. See here for an example of the type of activity you might deliver with your young people.

5. What is the action research part of this programme?

This programme is not just about delivering activities but also about building the evidence as to how STEM can be used as a tool to support wider youthwork outcomes. Often STEM activities are framed around explicit learning and/or encouraging young people to consider STEM as a career. Whilst this programme is open to this, we are especially focused in learning how STEM can support broader skills and outcomes such as wellbeing, resilience and confidence which is much more under researched.

We’re also interested in how youth workers - including those who may not consider themselves to have any STEM background - are enabled to lead these activities confidently as “agents of change” and be valued for their expertise in working with young people.

This programme is therefore framed around an “action research” model which means working together as a cohort with youthworkers and scientists seen as equal researchers bringing different skills. We will bring everyone together to develop ideas and questions together, before tailoring and putting them in practice separately through delivering activities with the youth group. We will then come together to reflect on what worked best and collate feedback on this on the impact contributing towards developing the evidence. This will then be used to inform the next cycle to activities and will be repeated several times over the 9 months.

Through this we will be collectively collating what works, what are the challenges and what the impacts are together in the five different youth groups. This is what will build the evidence and we will publish this together with all the partners named.

As this is a critical part of the programme, involvement with the action research meetings is a key commitment. The dates will be organised with the cohort together.

6. Application and Programme Timeline

7. What will we ask for in your grant application form?

See below for a summary of the questions we will ask in the application form. Applications should come directly from youth groups.

Support is available at any point during the application stage, please just reach out to either lewis@scienceceilidh.com or katie@scienceceilidh.com if needed.

1. Contact details including your name, email address, contact number and job title.

2. Details of your youth group including the organisation name, the location of the centre, and postcodes of the areas you serve. We also ask a bit about the group you work with.

Up to 150 words. Please let us know more about the young people, including a rough split of gender and any other demographics and/or information you think might be relevant. We're especially keen to involve youth groups including those who are underrepresented in STEM.

3. Give a brief summary of your youth work.

Up to 200 words. We'd like to understand how you currently work with the young people - for example, how often you meet, what you might usually do together and how the young people are involved.

4. What about this action research programme in particular is interesting to you as a youth worker?
Up to 200 words. We'd like to know why the opportunity to work with the scientist-in-residence to co-deliver activities and work with the other youth workers to develop evidence together on the role of STEM to support youth work outcomes might be of interest.

5. What, if any, STEM activities have you delivered before?

Up to 150 words. We’re looking for both groups who do not have any experience of delivering explicitly STEM activities with their youth group as well as those who have.

6. What might excite the young people you work with about working with a “scientist-in-residence”?

Up to 150 words. We'd welcome any thoughts from the young people themselves in this section (e.g. quotes, short video) though appreciate this may not be possible.

7. Is there any other support that you might find useful in this programme?

Up to 150 words. If you or the youth group have any support needs or considerations for your involvement, please let us know. If there are any outstanding questions or things you're not sure about, you can share that here too.

By submitting the application you confirm you are committed to attend to the best of your availability the whole elements of the programme including working collaboratively with a scientist-in-residence and attending the 4 action research meetings from October 2024 to June 2025.

8. Programme selection process - how will decisions be made?

We will be specifically looking to support a diverse portfolio in the youth workers and youth groups we support. As defined in section 2, we are particularly interested in youth workers who work with youth groups who are underrepresented in STEM. We will be aiming for reaching several areas of Scotland and are looking for both youthworkers who have not explicitly used STEM in their activities as well as those who have.

We have kept the application form purposefully light touch. If we have further questions, we may get back in touch with you.

9. How to apply

Apply here

An offline word version of the application is available here which can be emailed to katie@scienceceilidh.com. If you would prefer another format (e.g video submission or phone call) please get in touch!

We’re particularly excited about alternative formats to answer Q6: “What excites the young people you work with about working with a “scientist-in-residence”?” videos, letters, drawings or any other creative formats from the young people are encouraged. We appreciate capacity or timing might make this difficult so this is not essential and applications will not be penalised.