Lit Up Programme
The Programme for Literacy in Science and Health in Oeiras, or Lit Up Programme for short, aims to promote the science and health literacy of Oeiras citizens, with a focus on Oeiras high school students and teachers.
The name Lit Up derives from "literacy up", as in "to turn up", or "to increase", literacy (levels), as well as from the expression to "light up", in the sense of lighting up or igniting the interest in science and health literacy themes and questions; the Lit Up Programme targets all who live in Oeiras, with a particular emphasis on high school (grades 10 through 12) students and teachers. Lit Up is a partnership between the Católica Biomedical Research Centre (CBR) and the municipality of Oeiras - in portuguese, Câmara Municipal de Oeiras (Oeiras Valley).
Mission
Lit Up´s mission is to foster or to "light up” the interest and literacy* level of Oeiras citizens - high school students, teachers and others - in science, technology and health themes. In addition, Lit Up wants to contribute to raising the number of Oeiras high school students who go into careers that fall within the scope of the STEM* and health fields.
*STEM = science, technology, engineering and mathematics
Investing in science literacy and the health of society at large is highly desirable.
“We’ve arranged a society on science and technology in which nobody understands anything about science and technology, and this combustible mixture of ignorance and power sooner or later is going to blow up in our faces. I mean, who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don’t know anything about it? Science is more than a body of knowledge, it’s a way of thinking. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions to interrogate those who tell us something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we’re up for grabs for the next charlatan political or religious leader who comes ambling along." - Carl Sagan
Having scientific literacy means having access to the tools and workings of modern science, having a critical lens to understand the past, and being able to harness science as a force for positive change in the future. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health literacy can save lives, and inadequate health literacy is recognized as a stronger indication of an individual's health problems than age, employment status, education level or race. It is essential for high-quality care, and for limiting unnecessary risk and cost in healthcare systems.
With regard to the Lit Up science and health literacy programme, CBR has partnered with the municipality of Oeiras, which has a very vibrant science and technology ecosystem and a vast and diverse community of researchers, to bring science and health literacy to the foreground of its population´s discourse and concerns. In addition to many local initiatives centered around Oeiras, these efforts have a strong component of internationalization, with a planned cycle of lectures - the TRAILBLAZER TALKS - featuring speakers whose work is relevant on a global scale.
Building the pipeline of future science and health researchers and professionals.
Critically, and despite the importance of STEM and healthcare jobs to the current and future economy, most nations require a greater number of graduates specializing in these fields. The continuing shortage of technology workers began at the end of the 20th century and, since then, government agencies in many countries around the world - Portugal included - have invested heavily in STEM education and its promotion (in recent decades the effort of STEM education has reincorporated the visual or performing arts such as dance, design, painting, photography and writing, becoming the STEAM = STEM + Arts framework or educational approach). However, in recent years in Portugal there has been a considerable loss of interest in STEM areas during and after secondary education. According to University of Lisbon´s Institute of Education (IE-ULisboa) Policy Brief #6, published in June 2023, from 2016 to 2021, a consistent average of 51-52% of Portuguese students in grade 9 chose a science and technology-centered curriculum for the grades 10 to 12 portion of their secondary school career; however, in the same period, the number of candidates for higher education and the number of graduates in STEM areas did not exceed 30% and 27%, respectively. In addition to a shortage in science and technology workers, particularly in the engineering and information and communications technology (ICT) fields, and for many years now, Portugal has a tremendous deficit in healthcare professionals.
Vision
The municipality of Oeiras is partnering with researchers at fundamental research institute CBR to provide secondary schools in Oeiras with opportunities and resources that can help build the pipeline of technicians, academics and leaders of tomorrow. We believe that contact with researchers, doctors, nurses and other health professionals, going on lab or hospital tours, being exposed to job shadowing in research and/or medical contexts, meeting masters and PhD students, post-doctoral and medical fellows, principal investigators and heads of clinical departments or technical teams, hearing talks from world class scientists and physicians, nurses and medical technicians, and/or participating in Art-centered science activities and many others, has the potential to prime or to expand interest of those who partake in Lit Up initiatives in the areas of science, technology and medicine. Our goal is to ignite (big and small) sparks of interest in science and health themes, regardless of outcome. Whether participating in our initiatives aids high school students in choosing a biochemistry or pharmacy degree and then a career in biomedical research, or in deciding against studying medicine and rather investing in studying biomedical engineering and later designing artificial intelligence-driven medical robots and devices, or does nothing for a given student in terms of career choice but somewhat sparks his/her interest in science or health themes, we will consider such an impact positive. Whether it simply aids students, teachers and/or the general public to understand a) the team work and multidisciplinarity that goes into a research or medical team, b) how research funding works, c) why some research questions must be answered using animal experimentation, d) how to navigate a complicated health treatment regimen, e) how to prevent a given set of diseases, etc etc, or simply leads to a better understanding of the role of science or the scientific method in our increasingly complex and technological lives, we will consider such an impact positive.
Structure
The Lit Up programme consists of a series of initiatives aimed at increasing science and health literacy, from very close mentoring of 12th grade (pre-university) students (MIND DATES), to JOB SHADOWING opportunities in a clinical context (JOB SHADOWING PreMed) or research laboratory (JOB SHADOWING PreSci), to consulting and mentoring programs for high school STEM teachers (I am STEAM), to Art and science workshops for students with an interest in applying their interest in drawing, music, writing and/or theatre to science and/or health projects, to a wide variety of seminars and informal lectures ("CAFÉ COM SAÚDE" or, in english, "COFFEE BREAK WITH HEALTH"), and, lastly, more formal (TRAILBLAZER TALKS) with clinical and research experts.
Lit Up is subdivided into 2 subprogrammes, Schools Lit Up and All Lit Up, each encompassing several interventions to support literacy in science and/or health: School Lit Up, consisting of initiatives aimed at the educational community (students and teachers) in Oeiras high schools (MIND DATES, JOB SHADOWING, I am STEAM and A stands for Arts), and All Lit Up, consisting of initiatives aimed at the general public of Oeiras ("for All audiences") ("Café com Saúde" and TRAILBLAZER TALKS).
The CBR is part of the Faculty of Medicine of the Catholic University of Portugal (FM-UCP) or Católica Medical School, and also of the Clinical Academic Center Católica Luz (CAC - CL), which aggregates and synergizes the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP), the Hospital da Luz (Grupo Luz Saúde S.A., Hospital da Luz S.A., GLSMED Learning Health S.A.) (the largest private hospital in Portugal), and the União das Misericórdias Portuguesas. The Lit Up programme can thus take advantage not only of the impressive human capital of the CBR and FM-UCP in basic research and specialists in clinical practice, but also of the universe of academic and clinical specialists of the CAC-CL.
Team
The current Lit Up director is Joana Loureiro, but the programme is only possible because of the commitment and enthusiasm of our Lit Up volunteers.
Volunteer for Lit Up
Lit Up´s implementation is only possible due to the commitment and enthusiasm of its volunteers - researchers, doctors, nurses, health technicians, and other professionals. Each volunteer can provide one-on-one mentoring sessions, host a student during their day-to-day in the lab or the hospital or clinic, offer consulting and share knowledge with a high school teacher on a STEM project, and/or serve as a speaker in an informal conversation in a library, seniors centre, and/or health facility. Learn more about Lit Up initiatives here and contact us [subject: I want to be a Lit Up volunteer/email: joloureiro@ucp.pt] if you are interested in participating!
Lit Up – SCIENCE and HEALTH LITERACY in OEIRAS PROGRAMME