The Ecsite conference is a yearly held science engagement conference open to all professionals who engage audiences with science and technology. It’s a conference offering “an intense mix of intellectual stimulation, purposeful and creative sessions and inspiring human encounters”. A conference of five days that pushes science professionals to join forces in shaping answers to the “Echoes from the future”, which is the theme of the next Ecsite conference held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 11-13 June 2020.

The 2020 Ecsite conference is something not to be missed and SySTEM 2020 thought so too. This year SySTEM 2020 has been working on two session proposals to share the innovative work that has been taking place within this project, and last week SySTEM 2020 was notified that these sessions have been accepted. SySTEM 2020 is going to the 2020 Ecsite conference – input celebratory gif here.

Data narratives through storytelling and physicalisation

It is often thought that storytelling and science are antithetical of one another. Two areas that are directly opposed. However, both are creative pursuits that want to explain the world. It is for this reason, this three-hour session will be held using the SySTEM 2020 map as a starting point, whilst highlighting some of the stories which are buried deep within the map. These stories will allow us to make tangible observations of data literacy, successes and failures seen within the project, and the connections made using this tool. Participants of this workshop will get acquainted with data literacy, physicalisation and storytelling; they will co-design formats to implement this methodology in their own formal or informal learning setting, and in close collaboration with others will tell and present their own science learning data story. The session will be convened by Andrew Whittington-Davis from Ecsite and will have five main speakers:

• Mairéad Hurley, the Education and Learning Manager from Science Gallery Dublin
• Karien Vermeulen, head of programme education at the WAAG society and also Pam de Sterke, a project manager also at the WAAG society
• Maria Zolotonosa, senior project manager from Ecsite
• and lastly Jan Pomiern, a creative producer from Science Now

Letting go of the control: co-design for deeper engagement with science

SySTEM 2020 will be leading this session alongside another EU project, SISCODE, in this one-day long pre-conference session to help you let go of the control. In this session, we are inviting educators from museums and other non-formal learning spaces to explore the method of co-design. This method has been specifically adapted to non-formal science learning to help you produce an inclusive education lesson plan/experience and learn how to integrate co-design into your practices. The session will be convened by Maria Zolotonosa and will provide expertise from a range of speakers from all over Europe:

• Eva Durall from Aalto University
• Mairéad Hurley, the Education and Learning Manager from Science Gallery Dublin
• Gene Bertrand from Cube Design Museum
• Carmen Fenollosa, senior project manager at Ecsite
• Will Hunter from We the Curious science and arts centre in Bristol, UK
• and last but not least, Matteo Merzagora from TRACES

Interested? Registration is still open and attending one of SySTEM 2020's sessions has been shown scientifically to improve idea generation^*. See you in Ljubljana.

_{* By "scientifically studied" we mean anecdotally studied, and by anecdotally studied we mean more research is required.}