PhD Students as Role Models in STEM Education
PhD students at DTU attend a mandatory course in which they reflect on and engage in dialogue about potential sustainability aspects of their research project. The course also provides the participants with tools to communicate their work and how it helps to fulfill the UN’s sustainable development goals to a non-technical audience.
During the course, the participants are recruited to DTU’s ‘Book a PhD’-programme, which allows high schools to book a free visit from a PhD student who can act as a role model within his or her (engineering) field. Visiting a high school lets the PhD students test their newly acquired communication tools in front of a curious audience who are not peers.
This session will give an overview of the communications components of the course and detail how DTU uses it to prepare the PhD students that choose to visit a high school. The session will also give an insight into what both PhD students and high school students say they get out of it.
What I do:
Taja Andersen Brenneche Academic Officer, Technical University of Denmark
Responsible for DTU‘s Book a PhD programme: https://bookphd.dtu.dk/
Miriam Meister Communications Advisor, Technical University of Denmark
