Researchers from Gävle aim to make children’s dreams fly

16 researchers from the University of Gävle will soon take a trip to 16 schools in the region to meet pupils in years 4 – 9 to tell them about their own research journeys.

Researchers from different disciplines will take this trip to inspire pupils in years 4 – 9.

“Every child dreams about the future and wants to do important things in life. Making them understand that nothing is impossible is a good thing,” says Signhild Olsson, strategist at RucX, Educational Centre of development in Gävleborg, University of Gävle.

Signhild Olsson

They followed their dream

Signhild says that the researchers would all like to show the children that they once were a little boy or girl with dreams too, and if you follow your dream you can have a lot of fun.

Some of the researchers will return to exactly the same school they themselves attended. In this way, they become even more credible as they can say: ´I sat in these rooms and had the same dreams as you have and I now work in this field.´ It will be really exciting,” Signhild says.

Her long experience as a head teacher in different types of school has shown her that if you are a little bit of a nerd, people tend to see you as slightly odd. Many of the researchers, she thinks, may have had such experiences, because if you have that unique ability to dive deeply into a field, you are easily seen as a nerd.

“I think many of these children in schools have this unique ability to dive deeply into a field. I would be good to dedramatize this ability and point to the fact that for a researcher the ability to specialize in a field, to be a nerd, is a must. One of the most important things we teachers do is to let the pupils keep their dreams,” Signhild Ohlsson concludes.

The researchers plan to evaluate their experiences together later on and, on the basis of these, plan for future research tours to other schools in the region.