Over the years, I have been presenting my research in front audiences of secondary school pupils. Sometimes as a talk, but often in a more interactive format. I particularly enjoyed having a workshop about ‘interactive campaigning’ with the 15-16 year old honors students of the Emmaus College, Rotterdam. Recently, I performed for 12 year old primary school pupils. They were excited to come to Erasmus University as part of their science program offered by Wetenschapsknooppunt Zuid-Holland. I lectured on ‘how to grasp and keep attention in a campaign’ and how social media and digital games can contribute.
Their first time in a lecture hall, my first time to face a crowd of one hundred pairs of very young eyes. They really enjoyed the cases of persuasive gaming I included, and found the clip from our MOOC amazing (‘are you really on TV?’). Their teachers and the EUR tutors who had workshops with afterwards told me that they grasped most of the information and were capable to apply it as well. I hope to welcome them to the EUR in a few years!