Communicating science matters: positive evidence from the BASCOE study, a quantitative study from Brain Awareness Week outreach activities

Introduction While the importance of science communication and outreach is widely acknowledged, their impact is often overlooked or not measured. To address this question we carried a study aimed to quantitatively assess the influence of science communication and outreach activities on knowledge acquisition and retention by secondary school students during Brain Awareness Week (BAW) 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal. Methods A population of 428 students raging from 6th to 12th grade (6–12 years of formal education), was involved in this study. Results Analysis of pre-and post-event questionnaire data revealed a significant improvement in participant knowledge scores 7 days post-activity compared to the baseline. Discussion These findings highlight the importance of such quantitative evaluations and underscore the pivotal role of science communication in enhancing scientific knowledge in schoolchildren.

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Publication Details

Journal
Frontiers in Communication
Published
2026-03-17
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1721770
Primary Topic
Climate Change Communication and Perception
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Communicating science matters: positive evidence from the BASCOE study, a quantitative study from Brain Awareness Week outreach activities

G.M. Melo, Margarida Brotas, Cláudia Nunes dos Santos, Ana Fragoso Fonseca et al.
Frontiers in Communication
Climate Change Communication and Perception
article

Communicating science matters: positive evidence from the BASCOE study, a quantitative study from Brain Awareness Week outreach activities

G.M. Melo, Margarida Brotas, Cláudia Nunes dos Santos, Ana Fragoso Fonseca, Mario Castro, Ana Rita Colaço, Sílvia V. Conde, Adriana M. Capucho, Conceição Calhau, Hugo Vicente Miranda, Beatriz Felgueiras, Inês P. Silva, Maria Serrano Correia, Nuno Miguel Gonçalves, Nuno Mendonça, Fátima O. Martins, Sandra Tenreiro, Beatriz Nogueira, Gabriela Ribeiro, Carlos Pita, César S. Mendes, Nataša Lončarević, Olga Carreira
article en

Abstract

Introduction While the importance of science communication and outreach is widely acknowledged, their impact is often overlooked or not measured. To address this question we carried a study aimed to quantitatively assess the influence of science communication and outreach activities on knowledge acquisition and retention by secondary school students during Brain Awareness Week (BAW) 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal. Methods A population of 428 students raging from 6th to 12th grade (6–12 years of formal education), was involved in this study. Results Analysis of pre-and post-event questionnaire data revealed a significant improvement in participant knowledge scores 7 days post-activity compared to the baseline. Discussion These findings highlight the importance of such quantitative evaluations and underscore the pivotal role of science communication in enhancing scientific knowledge in schoolchildren.

Frontiers in CommunicationVol. 11
Champalimaud Foundation (PT), Ministry of Education (BR), European Federation of Animal Science (IT), Nova Medical (United States) (US), Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (PT), Universidade Nova de Lisboa (PT)
Quality Education
Openalex Percentile: Top 23%
Climate Change Communication and Perception
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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