Rewrite The Headlines Workshop

At Research the Headlines, our aim is to address how research is reported in the media. We want to ensure that people of all ages are better equipped to understand and evaluate this information. We were recently awarded funding from the British Academy to launch “Rewrite the Headlines” this autumn, a competition to engage young people with research and the media. We have now piloted the Rewrite the Headlines workshop with teachers and wanted to tell our readers all about it!

The Rewrite the Headlines workshop for teachers has been piloted as part of a public engagement event at the University of Strathclyde. We have adapted the materials we developed for delivering a workshop to children about how the media deals with research evidence, to make suitable to teachers and other education professionals to administer. Teachers from a number of Glasgow schools attended the workshop. They were very positive about the content of the workshop and could really see the benefit the workshop and the related competition would have for children in their schools.

At the moment we are focusing on the portrayal of healthy lifestyle headline examples in the media. One of the reasons for this is of course the obvious importance of children learning about health related issues. We have also found though that children engage well with media headline examples like ‘chocolate is good for you – official’ or if ‘2 minutes exercise can stop ageing‘. We would very much welcome continued feedback from teachers and other education professionals about what other content examples would be engaging to primary school children and at the same time are relevant to learning outcomes. So please do get in touch with us if you have ideas!

We would also like to take this opportunity to advertise the Project Manager post we have available for Rewrite the Headlines.  The project manager will be based at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh (50% FTE for 7 months commencing from July 2015). If you have project management and public engagement/knowledge exchange experience please apply! Or alternatively please forward information about this job, which is included below, to anyone with relevant experience who might be interested. See http://www.hw.ac.uk/about/careers/job-opportunities/project-manager-rewrite-the-headlines.htm

The post, funded by the British Academy, requires an enthusiastic and flexible individual to join Research the Headline’s team in initiating this new activity. The public engagement activity will primarily consist of a competition which will engage schoolchildren and undergraduate students in exploring how research is reported in the media. The appointee will have the attractive opportunity to support the design and development of the competition, and take a lead role in its launch and management. They will work alongside academics from a number of HEI in Scotland who contribute to Research the Headlines, while initiating new links with teachers, education authorities, policymakers, and the media. The appointee will have experience in project management and public engagement/knowledge exchange.

Informal enquiries may be made to: Dr A Gow (A.J.Gow@hw.ac.uk) or Dr Sinead Rhodes (sinead.rhodes@strath.ac.uk), Co-Chairs of Research the Headlines.