Plant Power Day – 18 May 2024

Since its creation, the event has evolved to include various external groups and organisations, but plant science research has always been its core focus. The hands-on activities created and led by the scientists from the Division of Plant Sciences at the School of Life Sciences and the James Hutton Institute (JHI) aim to give an insight into the research taking place locally.

In 2024, the event also included science activities from the Wellcome Centre for Anti-Infectives Research and Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science. More widely, there was the Nature Collective Art and Craft Fair, Whimsical Lush exhibition in the Green Gallery with the toadstool trail around the garden, the Dundee Naturalists Society and Maxwell Community Garden.

We welcomed over 800 visitors, mainly families with primary aged children, to the garden over the day. The fantastic weather made it a wonderful event and encouraged visitors to stay and explore the wider gardens.

Evaluation is a key aspect of public engagement. We need to check that our activities align with our strategy and those of our funders, that we meet the needs of our visitors and to check that our scientists are gaining and improving on various skills. A few areas that we focused on for this event were:

Reaching a wide audience

The event is free to attend to ensure it is open to all, however, people need to know that your event is taking place. We used various routes to promote it including Facebook, Dundee What’s On, Eventbrite, posters in Dundee libraries and newsletters. Communities Officer Shabnam Wasim ensured that all community centres in the city promoted the event on their Facebook pages. Data from the Eventbrite registrations stated that 30% heard about the event via Facebook indicating the importance of this platform for reaching people. Additional data collected indicated most visitors were from Dundee (83%) and had no relationship with the university (58%). Many had visited the garden before (71%) but hadn’t attended university events (30%).

Science learning

One of our main aims is for our public engagement activity to reflect the research taking place in our organisation. We sent a short questionnaire to visitors after the event and received a 10% response rate (30 replies from approx. 300 separate bookings). Everyone who responded enjoyed the event (17% gave a score of 4 while 83% gave 5 where 1 - not at all, 5 - very much). 

There were 31 references to specific activities run by our scientists. There were also references to the staff and students involved in the event with comments related to their enthusiasm, knowledge and being welcoming and friendly.

Example public quotes related to the science: 

• “Why James Hutton does all their potato work - we live beside many for the research fields but never really know what they do.” 
• “I came away feeling educated. The Barley research stall gave me hope for the future!” 
• “I enjoyed learning about extracting DNA from raspberries. We also enjoyed learning about where the different vegetables came from - New World or Old World.” 
• “Very interactive but also self-directed so we could wander and do things at our own pace. Really enjoyed potato and tomato workshop.”
• “I cannot thank everyone enough that gave their time and shared their knowledge and expertise, I left feeling truly inspired and my faith restored in humanity. Just Wonderful!”

Professional development of our scientists 

Prior to the event, a training session was provided. During that session we asked the attendees some questions pre- and post-training to measure their learning. There was a small increase in their confidence in all three - talking to the public, running activities and finding resources.

All participating scientists were sent a post-event questionnaire to capture their feedback. Eight people responded (20%) and indicated the following: improved communication skills (50%), improved self-confidence (38%), making new connections (50%), explaining my ideas in simple language (63%), and running a PE event safely (63%).

Learning

As with any event, there are always improvements to be made. This year we introduced a stamp card which had all the activities listed and included a map with their location. This helped more people find some of our more ‘hidden’ activities, however, this can still be improved upon.  Also, visitors asked for activities to be more accessible to under 5s.

Overall, it was a very successful event, and we aim to implement further improvements to make it even better next year.