THE SEEDS EXPERIENCE ACCORDING TO THE PROTAGONISTS: Interview with Claire Murray

Claire Murray from ECSA shared with us her experience in the project SEEDS. 

Claire was very clear about her advice to someone who wants to work with teenagers, she answered: “Involve them at every point. Listen to what interests them, what matters to them, work with them and don’t try to overdirect them or don’t try to force them to do something that they don’t want to do. Because they have so much energy and enthusiasm. If you work with teenagers you get so much back in return and I know that hopefully we have built relationships for the future with the teenagers by doing SEEDS. Also, something else really important, which I’ve seen in other projects as well, is that building relationships for the future is something that really matters because you build trust and you also build a level of interaction that is really powerful for change.” 

Furthermore, Claire’s major message to the people following the developments of the project is that SEEDS works. “It is something that has been incredibly exciting for us to see. To actually see how the teenage scientists become so interested in STEM but also interested in how they can improve their own healthy lifestyles. This is something that I think would be really interesting to explore in other areas so whether that’s different subjects or different geographical locations, I think SEEDS could definitely spread a lot further and it would be really interesting to see how SEEDS will develop over the next few years.”