I am passionate about helping to increase “Science Capital” for all
Since my PhD in the 1990s I have delighted in connecting with school children, family groups and older people to share the joy of what science can reveal for the world and to nurture curiosity. I aim to boost what is sometimes called “Science Capital“, a combination of: (1) science we know about, (2) science we’ve experienced doing, (3) who we know related to science and (4) how scientifically we think. The more “Science Capital” we have the more scientifically literate and likely to consider a STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) career we are.
Freelance Science Workshops with Hands-on-Science
From Jun 2025 I was delighted to join the team at Hands-on-Science educational company as a Freelance practitioner, delivering a range of fun and informative science workshops in primary schools.
Public Engagement with “Connecting Science” at the Wellcome Sanger Institute
While working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge I was also active with their amazing team of public engagement professionals within “Connecting Science“. So much so, that I became a “Science Engagement Champion“.
Schools Engagement at the Wellcome Sanger Institute
I spoke at 9 primary school “Meet a Scientist” career chats, given 9 short research talks for secondary school groups (2022-2024) and hosted two classes at the July 2024 “Schools Conference”.
A colleague shadowing my talk for A-level students said:
“Observing your talk has given me lots of good ideas…I liked how it covered a lot of science and technical terms, but you always took time to explain what everything meant, which made a complex subject easier to understand.
When you talked about how exciting new discoveries are, I could hear it in your voice, which was fantastic.”
Talking with older community members via the Wellcome Sanger Institute
In Oct 2023 Connecting Science linked me up with charity “Cambridgeshire Older People’s Enterprise” (COPE) and their “Talking Together” program, aimed at tackling loneliness and supporting lifelong learning.
This was a sheer joy, and has led me to want to work more with older members of the community.
I designed and wrote support materials that were mailed to participants, then facilitated 6 x 45min discussions via a group telephone call with a dozen people older people. We covered the basics of infectious diseases, vaccines, anti-microbial medicines and diagnostic tests, with a focus on polio and COVID-19 as examples.
“The warmth, sense of humour and information you shared really came through. Clearly, the participants were interested and involved.”
said Deborah Katznelson, chairperson of COPE
STEM Ambassador
If you’re wanting to visit schools to run workshops, train teachers or chat about science careers, do sign up as a STEM Ambassador. You get online training courses on safeguarding and engagement basics and they will facilitate your Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, as well as linking you with local schools wanting volunteers. I signed up on 2022 and have been delighted with the network.
Through the STEM Ambassador Hub I was able to work with charity “Inspiring the Future” and “Learn by Design” education specialists to deliver 10 workshops in 9 different schools (2 online and 8 in-person) focused on women in science careers (2022 to 2024).
Here I am chatting online with school children about my research at the Wellcome Sanger Institute on International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2023.
I wrote a case-study in support of continued funding for education charity “Inspiring the Future”.
Combining my engagement in the Midlands and that hosted by the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, with the STEM Ambassadors since 2021 I have achieved…
Note that the East Midlands STEM Ambassador Hub online STEM Elves competition 2023 had an audience of over 2000 school children so I “reached” a lot of kids with that one event.
Communicating biology at the University of Nottingham
I was employed as a Teaching Associate at the University of Nottingham from Sept 2016-Dec 2019. As well as loving my role as a teacher, making the students squirm and appreciate good sanitation as I described the life-cycles of gruesome parasites, I sought out many chances to communicate a biology concepts to the wider public.
I worked along-side the widening participation team (who brought students from schools underrepresented in higher education on-site) and a range of colleagues within Life Sciences and the Chemistry department, doing pond-dipping, vaccine and immunology-related activities, extracted DNA from fruit and looking at arm evolution using the Life Sciences skeleton collection.
I was particularly delighted to join a team representing the University at the prestigious Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London (pictured), to work with Immunologists to design and deliver activities at a University family event “Wonder” and extract DNA from fruit with “looked after children”.
Open this tab to see more details of activities I was involved with at the University of Nottingham…
Royal Society Exhibition “Super-materials against Super-bugs” (July 2019) with the teams of Morgan Alexander, Professor of Biomedical Surfaces, Paul Williams, Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Kim Hardie, Professor of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Part of a team delivering DNA extractions at Schools Science Fair with the Chemistry department (May 2019).
Co-designed, delivered and evaluated “Elemental Immunity” family activities at “Wonder” science fair with Prof. Luisa Martinez-Pomares’ team (June 2019)
Flu vaccination activity at Family Discovery Day (June 2018) – co-designed and hosted on my own.
7 varied (arm anatomy, pond-dipping, DNA extractions, immunology and cell growth) school activities on campus, supported by the Widening Participation team and the inspiring Tom Hartman, for “looked after children” and other kids underrepresented in higher education.
Member of cross-department “Practitioners of Outreach Group”.
Here I am at the Royal Society Exhibition explaining sticky bacterial biofilms, how they block antibiotics from working properly and how researchers have made materials to prevent them, all using beads and tubes in fun races.
Science communication through poetry
Bringing together two of my loves, science and poetry, has been a joy for me. My own science-themed poems can be found here: https://annebishop.uk/2024/11/26/science-communication-through-poetry/.
Microbiology Continuing Professional Development for High School Teachers
I worked in the USA for 5 years where, along-side my cholera research, I volunteered as a Research Fellow for an NIH Science Education Partnership Award (held by Karina Meiri) at Tufts, Boston, USA, 2009-2010.
I was one of 3 microbiologists producing materials and running professional development for 6 biology teachers with whom we co-created a human disease-based Bio-2 curriculum, which the teachers then delivered to school students.
This taught me a lot about giving and receiving feedback, which was part of every session, and communication, due to the teachers’ vast expertise in this realm.
First Encounters – a PhD Researcher in Residence
During my PhD I volunteered as a “Researcher in Residence“, working with a London school to design and deliver two lessons and a careers Q&A session for GCSE Biology students. The teacher I worked with got sick, so I delivered everything with support just from a teaching assistant. I was thrown-in at the deep end and I LOVED IT!
I had to strictly integrate with the curriculum! Their topic was blood and buffering, about which I was not very excited to be honest, but I worked with it. I had the students make solutions of albumin (the main blood protein) and study its pH buffering capacity, bringing along professional pipettes for them to try. We then looked at the chemistry of different amino acids and the gene sequence for human albumin, using online databases that scientists use each day.
I have taken every opportunity for both teaching (within Universities) and broad science engagement ever since, as you can see above.
Public Engagement Training
On 9th July 2025 I attended a training day “The Empathetic Refutational Interview: improving vaccine conversations” to empower effective communication with vaccine hesitant people, hosted by the JitsuVAX project team.
From Jan to April 2025 I completed and graduated from a “Creative science communication and public engagement” masters-level online continued professional development course at the University of the West of England. After two months of learning, I successfully completed the written assessment tasks: critical reflection and a grant application.
In Oct 2024 I completed the “Science Engagement in Action” training course at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, accredited by the Royal Society for Biology:
In 2024 I participated in a workshop “Engaging with neurodiverse and disabled children”, delivered by the Lightyear Foundation and hosted by “Connecting Science”, which gave us lots of great ideas about how to deliver STEM activities with more equitable access.
Science engagement training at “Nottingham Engaged: Global Research, Civic Impact” – University of Nottingham 2018; workshops attended:
- “Public Engagement 101”
- “Working with Schools”
- “Evaluating for Impact” delivered by members of the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement
Dr Anne Bishop 