For G.H.Scientific, the year 2022 has been an eventful year. Never before have we run so many events month after month, it was exciting. More importantly, we worked towards our vision of promoting Science communication and building capacity in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. We take a look at our events for the year 2022.
Giving Girls An Experience in Neuroscience
The Neurogirl Camp was our first activity for this eventful year. The Neurogirl Camp is an annual engagement event for senior high school girls organized by G.H.Scientific as a means to introduce girls to the field of Neuroscience, highlighting the prospects of the field. This year, the Neurogirl camp was held at the College of Health Sciences administration, University of Ghana Medical School. A total of 70 girls were invited from 7 senior high schools in Accra. Invited schools were Achimota School, St Mary’s Senior High School, Accra Girls’ Senior High School, Ebenezer Senior High School, Galaxy International School, Wesley Grammar Senior High School and Odorgonno Senior High School.
Professionals from various fields of Neuroscience, namely, neurology, neurophysiology, psychiatry, physiotherapy, neuro-pharmacology and speech and language therapy, engaged the girls in interactive mentoring sessions. During the session, they shared their career path, career experiences and challenges with the girls. The girls were also engaged in Neuroscience-related practicals such as cellular imaging, blood tests, behavioural tests and neurological assessments. The event was an enlightening one for students and teachers who participated.
Training Science Communicators
In April 2022, we ran a two-day training session organised for journalists interested in Science Communication/Journalism. The Science Journalism Fellowship brought together seasoned journalists and scientists to train persons interested in the field of science communication.
This was all part of measures to build capacity in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated fake news pandemic. About 15 journalists participated in the training alongside other communication specialists who have now become a part of the G.H.Scientific community.
Monthly Conversations Online
As all this was going on, we held our monthly engagement sessions bordering on various topics of interest t our community. For this eventful year, our “Let’s Talk About It” series saw professionals from different fields engage with our community on a topic in their fields of endeavor. Some of the focal topics for these engagements were, Research writing, Soft skills for today’s youth and History of western medicine in Ghana. These online engagement sessions gave our patrons the opportunity to widen their scope and learn from our invited guests.
With the spotlight on female STEM professionals, “Gheeks by the Fireside Conversation” shed more light on the professional journeys of invited guests, their successes, challenges and motivations. Held once a month, it served as a means of inspiring other people to pursue their own professional journeys.
Making Science Matter
To cap off our eventful year was the Science Barcamp. It was organised in partnership with Ghana Science Association, GhanaThink Foundation and Ghana Young Academy. The theme for the event was, “Making Science matter; Moving from research to policy”. The event which was held at CSIR-STEPRI in Accra brought together academics, policy workers, students and other members of public to deliberate on making research more useful in policymaking.
The keynote speaker, Prof Aba Bentil Andam shared great insights about the benefit of research co-creation between researchers and policy makers. Aside the panel discussions held, participants were engaged in breakout sessions which focused on topics such as Open Science and Mentoring a new generation.
In the midst of al this, we had the chance to do other cool things to make it a truly eventful year. We made donations to the museum of science and technology as well as creating original resources for the STEM community. We even opened up our YouTube Channel again!
As the year 2022 comes to a wrap, we are happy about our achievements for the year. We are grateful to all our partners, associates and community members. We are hopeful for the future and look forward to having even better engagement with all our partners, associates and community members. We are poised for the coming year, making it a great time to join the community. You can do so here.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year