Access and engagement – Birkbeck Graduate Research School (BGRS)

Assessors sought to assess CREST Award projects from 14 to 19-year-old students

The British Science Association’s mission is to transform the diversity and inclusivity of science; to reach under-served audiences and increase the number of people who are actively involved and engaged in science. 

They are looking to recruit CREST assessors within the fields of: STEM, Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences and Economics. The CREST Awards is one of their flagship programmes for young people. CREST inspires and engages young people aged 5 to 19-years old with project-based STEM activities.

CREST Assessors sought

CREST assessors help to develop students’ interest and attitudes towards science, along with their scientific and project skills. They do this by assessing Silver and Gold projects against the CREST assessment criteria, providing constructive feedback and encouragement, and sharing their STEM expertise with young people. Often, project assessment is the first time students’ work is seen by someone other than their parents or teachers. Students value the opportunity to share their work with someone with expertise and/or a career in the STEM sector. 
Assessing projects can be done on a voluntary or paid basis paid (£4 per Silver Award assessment and £6 per Gold Award assessment), with approximately 5 hours’ worth of assessments per month. All assessment and feedback are carried out via our online platform. 
Assessors are trained how to assess projects and give effective feedback. Also, assessing CREST projects count towards STEM Ambassador volunteer hours.

Further details

Please see the complete details for the role here.

CREST-Assessors-JD-2019 Download

Those interested should register their interest in this form and will be contacted shortly afterwards. If you have any questions, would like to know more about CREST Awards or have any thoughts on who else might be interested in the CREST assessor role, please contact Claudia Linan, Education Officer: t. +44 (0)20 7019 4969

BGRS Conference 2020: 22-23 April

BGRS Postgraduate Research Conference: 22-23 April 2020

2020 will mark the 100^th anniversary of Birkbeck joining the University of London, and the 75^th anniversary of our first PhD. To celebrate these milestones as we approach the College’s 200th year, the BGRS is organising a centenary conference, led by current PhD students and doctoral alumni.

Provisionally entitled #BBKConversations, it will be a great opportunity for the whole Birkbeck postgraduate research community to engage with the big issues of the day. The steering committee are in the early stages of planning the conference, but we need your help to shape it.

Over the course of two days, we hope to arrange lectures, workshops and maybe an exhibition, using our current research as well as the work of alumni to frame some big #BBKConversations.

Below are some themes the committee has come up with, but we would really like your input. What do you want to discuss and focus on? We are looking for exciting and innovative ways to bring together researchers in business, humanities, social sciences, STEM, and everything in between.

BGRS-Conference-2020-annoucement Download

What can I do to make the conference a success?

Whether or not you want to take an active role in the conference, please put the 22^nd and 23^rd of April in your diary. If you would like to join the committee, propose a theme or participate in one of the #BBKConversations, please contact the BGRS Manager Tim Hoe (t.hoe@bbk.ac.uk). Get in touch with any and every idea no matter how big or small, and let’s make this a great conference. Please let Tim have your ideas by the 2nd of December so we can discuss them at our planning workshop.

Planning workshop: 4 December

The conference committee will hold a workshop on the 4^th of December from 15:00 to 17:00 in Clore 101 – this will be open to anyone who would like to contribute to planning and organisation of the conference.

Suggested themes

If Birkbeck did not exist would we need to invent it?
What is the relevance of Birkbeck’s mission and its particular character in relation to society today?
What have Birkbeck’s contributions to society and to research been?
The conference could showcase this in relation to alumni. What should Birkbeck’s future research focus be?
What are the historic and current roles for Birkbeck in terms of activism and research?
Birkbeck has a radical history but should a university be radical?
Is London a global city-state? If so, is that good or bad for the UK?
It was agreed that the relationship between education, social mobility and migration could be explored in the context of London and the rest of the UK.
Access and engagement. What is the future of the university in relation to race and migration, borders and decolonisation of the curriculum?
What does a modern doctoral graduate look like and what journeys have led to our research students coming to Birkbeck? It would be interesting to explore some of the different stories and the role of a PhD in different cultures, with opportunities to interact and to explore these issues further at the conference.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of quantitative and qualitative research?
This could work as a debate – with representatives from both sides.
What role does objectivity play in research?
How does storytelling and narrative relate to research? What is reality – and what are the consequences of choices made when framing research?
What relevance do issues of privacy and digital data have in research?
This could include discussion of artificial intelligence, deep learning, big data and ethics.

Academic Open House

The Access and Engagement Department sits at the heart of Birkbeck’s commitment to improving the access and success of non-traditional students in London. We work with groups who may otherwise feel excluded from taking a step into higher education, including trade union members without a formal qualification above level 4; FE and adult education college students; forced migrants and those who have been out of education for a number of years.

Birkbeck’s academic and research community can support our work in a range of ways, including:

delivering free community lectures and/or learning activities;
running workshops to support those facing organisational change at work;
helping people to develop the skills they need to successfully navigate structural inequality;
offering insights into community priorities through their research.

Find out more

To find out more and discuss possible collaborations, the Department is holding an Academic Open House event on Thursday 26^th September from 3-5pm in Malet Street B02. The event is open to PhD candidates, Early Career Researchers and academics at Birkbeck. We will present further information about our work across London and our priorities for 2019/20, and there will be the opportunity for discussion with other academic colleagues and members of the Department.

Big Ideas Download

Academic Open House Download

Register to attend here

To register your interest, please complete the following short form: https://bbk.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/open-house-register-of-interest
For refreshments purposes it would be helpful to know how many are able to attend the Open House event, but even if you are unable to join us on the 26^th, we’d still love to hear from you so please do complete the form so we can keep in touch about future opportunities.